


What it Means (to have Courage)

by Winrael



Series: Kingdom of Virtue [1]
Category: Digimon Adventure
Genre: AU, De-Aged, F/M, M/M, Memory Loss, Mpreg, gratuitous adoption, they're all adopted, they're all digimon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-24 00:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 37,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2561237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winrael/pseuds/Winrael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the attack all he could do was hope he would see them all again what he didn't expect was that they wouldn't remember him</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Introduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lekko](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Lekko).



> prepare for feels

Once upon a time, in the digital world, there was a flourishing kingdom called the Kingdom of Virtue. It was a beautiful kingdom ruled by digital King Taichi and his beloved husband Lord Yamato. Taichi was the wielder of the crest of courage. Yamato carried the crest for friendship although sometimes he (Yamato) wondered why as he wasn’t the most social of people. Taichi would always respond that if you got his trust you could never ask for a truer friend.   
Taichi, Yamato and a few others in their kingdom were different from most kinds of Digimon. Their base forms appeared to be human, but they could digivolve unlike the researchers and most villagers. Their human forms were pretty much the equivalent of their rookie stage. The other thing that set them apart from most Digimon was how they had children. This difference is why they have names.  
Now most Digimon were born from eggs in primary village and were recreated from data when an older Digimon died, but sometimes new types of Digimon were created when two Digimon decided to combine their data and send the new data to Primary Village to create a new egg. Since data sharing was universal it didn't matter what gender the parents were or if they were gendered at all and it was impossible to create a child by accident. However unlike Digimon who would send their data and collect the egg, for their type of Digimon it was a live birth so one of the pair had to carry the child.   
Today the whole kingdom was celebrating as Taichi and Yamato had announced their intent to share data and create a child. After much debate they decided that for the first time Yamato would carry the child as Taichi tended to be on the front-lines defending his kingdom from attack. Taichi would carry their next child and he agreed that when it happened he would stay out of battle until the child was born. The pair hoped to have many children. It’s not like they didn't have the time considering they would live forever. Even if killed in battle as long as their data wasn't permanently erased they would be reborn in primary village and would grow up again.  
Taichi and Yamato were pleased when they were successful on their first try. Depending on how compatible the two digimon were data sharing could take a few attempts to get a good balance and in some cases it was completely impossible. Taichi and Yamato both agreed they were lucky, especially because they only had one attribute that matched completely. As time passed Yamato began to swell with child. One day Taichi was having trouble getting his love to leave their bedroom.  
“Matt? Koi? What’s wrong?”  
“I’m not going out there Tai!”  
“Why not? You look beautiful.”  
“I look fat!”  
Taichi pulled Yamato over to face him and gently placed a hand on his swelling stomach.  
“Koibito this is ours, our child, a being that is part of you and part of me. What in the world could be more beautiful than that?”  
A few tears slipped down Yamato’s face before he quickly wiped them away and attempted to regain his composure.  
“How do you always know just what to say?”  
“Well I’ve known you for a long time now I was bound to get there eventually.”  
Matt smiled and pulled Tai in for a small kiss.  
“Alright let’s go then.”  
“If it makes you feel any better I believe Myra and Jim are also expecting.”  
“What? Why didn’t I know this?”  
“Relax they only just found out they were successful and asked me if they could announce it at lunch today.”  
“So she’s not as far along then.”  
“No you have a little more than 4 months on her.”  
“Well let’s go hear her announce her good news to the rest of our group.”  
The pair walked together to the large lunchroom already there were the various other lords and ladies also their closest friends. Taichi and Yamato sat together at one end of the table Myra and Jim were at the opposite end. From Tai to Myra were Koushiro, Mimi, Iori, and Miyako. From Matt to Jim were Jyou, Sora, Daisuke and Ken.   
Koushiro was the head strategist in the kingdom he was practically attached to his computer especially since he figured out how to make it portable. He proudly wore the crest of knowledge and was always trying to learn more about the world.   
His wife Mimi had the crest of sincerity and was the head of negotiations. This surprised most people as she seemed so ditzy at times, but she was more intelligent than she came off. She was also friendly and people liked her so negotiations with her always went smoothly. She always was making sure Koushiro got away from his job sometimes or at least ate. She had the patience of a saint in Tai’s opinion.  
Jyou was the doctor always patching them up after training and battles and making sure they rested if they got sick. He was also carefully monitoring Matt’s pregnancy. It wasn’t actually his specialty, but he was doing it as a favor to the couple so they wouldn’t have to seek a doctor outside the castle. It was no wonder he bore the crest for reliability he was always there for them.   
His wife Sora had the crest of love and was a natural caretaker she mothered the entire group whenever she felt it necessary. She also trained the new guards. She may be small, even when she digivolved, but underestimating her would get you hurt.  
Of course it wasn’t just personality that determined if you were compatible with the crests although that was part of it. Some people loved with all their hearts and still weren’t compatible with the crest of love. Koushiro was still researching why this was. His best guess was it was not only about being courageous or loving, but also about being pure and having a battle ready spirit. Because a crest that wouldn’t be used was bad and a crest used by their enemies was worse. Of course it was still only a theory.  
Ken held the crest for kindness although most would never guess it. This was because Ken rarely interacted with others because he was extremely shy. Ken spent most of his time either researching with Koushiro or caring for the gardens around the castle. His favorite was a kind of flower that was similar to the roses in the human world.  
His husband Daisuke was found to be compatible with the crests for courage and friendship. Not as deeply connected to them as Tai and Matt were, but he could still use them. He probably wouldn’t be able to digivolve as far, but he had more attributes so his attacks were more diverse. He spent his time with Ken, helping out in the kitchens, or working with Tai as his apprentice. Tai was teaching Daisuke how to wield a sword. Tai was rather famous in battle for his fire blade.  
Miyako was found to be compatible with the crests for Love and Sincerity. She was apprenticed to Sora learning how to fight. She worked with computers like Koushiro, but wasn’t as attached to hers. When she had spare time she would be in the library or with her husband Iori.  
Iori was compatible with the crests for Reliability and Knowledge. Because of this at first he tried working in the hospital wing with Jyou, but found he had no interest in healing, then he tried working with Koushiro in research, but found he didn’t like sitting still for such long periods of time.   
Seeing how distressed he was Tai pulled him aside and explained that sharing their crests didn’t mean he had to act like them. It just meant they would be best at teaching him how to fight because the attacks would be similar. Iori then decided to learn to wield as many different types of swords as he could. His specialty was a katana and Tai had one specially made for him. He also became an excellent advisor to the king.  
Daisuke, Ken, Iori and Miyako were more recent additions to the castle than the others. They all lived in the surrounding village at first, but were each brought to the castle when they were found to be compatible enough to wield a crest. Others tried to join upon feeling a connection to a certain crest, but most weren’t compatible enough for it to react.   
Myra and Jim weren’t compatible with any of the crests. They also had no attributes so they couldn’t digivolve. They were friends of the group because they worked in the castle. Myra worked keeping the library organized and Jim often gathered supplies for the hospital. Also when Tai was born they would watch him when his parents were busy ruling the kingdom. After Tai’s mother was killed they became almost like a second set of parents and also good friends. It was still hard for Tai he was very young for a digimon when it happened and it felt like he couldn’t even grieve because he had to be strong for his people. As soon as he was of age he took over as king. Myra and Jim helped him a lot during that time making sure he didn’t overwork himself.   
Tai was so pleased they were having a child that would grow alongside his own. He just knew their children would be great friends. The announcement of Myra’s pregnancy was well received by the group and when the sounds of congratulations died down Tai said,  
“Is anyone else planning on having kids soon?”  
The remaining couple shook their heads and Sora said,  
“We might at some point, but all things considered it might be better to space us having kids out so we could all pitch in raising them.”  
The rest of the table nodded in agreement and finished their lunch moving on to lighter topics. Time seemed to pass quickly and soon enough Matt was ready to give birth. Tai held his hand even when it seemed like Matt was going to break several of his bones. After a few hours Matt was handed a tiny bundle.  
“Congratulations you two, it’s a girl.”  
Matt held her gently close to his chest and Tai climbed onto the bed so he could curl around them. Matt gently brushed her cheek and his eyes widened in wonder.  
“Tai do you feel that.”  
“Yes I feel it. She’s compatible with the crest of light. She almost shines with it. Perhaps she will shine when she’s older.”  
“Hikari.”  
“What?”  
“We should call her Hikari.”  
“Hikari Yagami light of the eight gods. It’s fitting she’ll be the light of the kingdom. Not only for being compatible with the crest of light, but for being our child. Hikari you are so loved.”  
Tai gently placed a kiss on his daughter’s tiny head and then kissed Matt on the cheek.  
“She’s beautiful Tai.”  
“I think she’ll have your bone structure, and hopefully your hair.”  
Tai ran his fingers through his own messy hair to prove his point.  
“I think she’s have your hair color but I agree in hoping it’s straight like mine. I also hope she has your eyes.”  
“Why?”  
“If she gets my blue eyes, you will never be able to say no to her. You still can’t really say no to me.”  
“I can if I need to I just don’t see a reason to.”  
Matt smiled up at Tai and soon after the family drifted off to sleep. The time passed quickly and when Hikari was almost 5 months old Myra gave birth to a boy she decided to call Takeru. When Tai and Matt saw the baby they knew instantly that he would be compatible with the crest of hope. His parents were both pleased with the knowledge and agreed to allow Takeru to train with Hikari when they were both old enough. Unfortunately this would never come to be at least not in the way they thought it would.


	2. So It Begins

It happened a couple months after Takeru was born. There was another attack on the castle. Normally the attacks were easily thwarted, but it seemed this Digimon had been planning for years. Koushiro had torn into his informants wondering how someone building such a large army had gone unnoticed.  
“King Taichi!”  
“Koushiro I don’t care about formalities in normal situations what makes you think you need to use my title now?”  
“Not important Tai. The digimon that’s leading the attack doesn’t seem to be natural. It’s like someone gathered bits of data from different digimon and blended them together. Luckily for us it wasn’t done well so if you can hit a few key points on its body it should fall apart. Also because it was forcibly created it won’t come back. The problem is the person whose behind this covered their tracks well so I haven’t been able to work out where those points are.”  
“Could you find out if you had more time?”  
“I think so, but I can’t be certain.”  
“Let’s try it anyway stay here and work on that the rest of us will head out and fight. Good luck.”  
“Same to you Tai.”  
Tai ran to the battlefield as he was running he started to glow and change.  
“Taichi digivolve to…  
Claws sprouted on his hands and feet and golden armor formed around his body. Attached to his back was a sword that seemed to be on fire with the symbol for courage emblazoned on both it and his chest plate. His ears became pointed with scales covering them and his teeth formed fangs. His eyes almost glowed with inner fire. All in all his was an impressive sight  
…Ryukomon!”  
As he reached the battlefield he drew his sword and shouted  
“Blades of fire!”  
The attack cut easily through a lot of the Digimon gathered. Darkness dissipated from them showing Tai they were being controlled. That explained how someone could gather such a large army in a short amount of time. He continued releasing more hoping they would help him release others. A few did, but most fled as soon as they were able. Tai wanted to be mad, but he knew they were mostly peaceful Digimon not fighters and it would be wrong to make them fight. Tai was soon starting to feel overwhelmed. The Digimon he was fighting weren’t very strong, but there was so many of them. Then he saw Yamato burst out of the castle behind him,  
“Yamato digivolve to…  
Yamato also sprouted claws and fangs. His ears traveled to the top of his head and become like wolf ears. Dark blue cloth covered his face starting just below his eyes. The cloth might look frail, but it was actually almost as strong as armor and gave Yamato more flexibility. He had the crest of friendship on his shirt and the daggers that Tai knew were hidden in his sleeves.  
…Lycamon!”  
Tai quickly fought his way to Matt’s side,  
“Matt where is-“  
Tai’s eyes darted to Matt’s empty arms making his meaning clear.  
“She’s fine. Myra’s watching her so I could help you. The other’s except Koushiro are coming he’s still trying to find the weak points.”  
Tai nearly slumped in relief knowing the others were coming. The first to arrive was Joe who had already digivolved into Sawbomon. He looked like a yeti mixed with a doctor the crest of reliability wherever there would normally be a caduceus and on the hammer he carried.  
Soon Mimi and Sora joined them as Nakomon and Tangermon bearing the crests of Sincerity and love respectively. Nakomon was like an armored princess covered in flowers and Tangermon had cloth armor similar to Lycamon but instead of being wolf like had a pair of red wings bursting from her back.  
All together Ken, Daisuke, Iori and Miyako burst out onto the field. It was likely they had been training together as they were all in their training outfits. It was nice to have the help, but as they were still in training while they could attack they weren’t yet able to digivolve.  
However even with all of them together they were being overwhelmed. The abomination attacking without care of whom it hit and the sheer number of controlled Digimon was wearing them down. The first to fall was Joe taking an attack meant for Mimi. He reverted back to being human and appeared to be younger like he was a child again.  
‘He must be badly hurt to look so young.’  
Tai knew in his heart that if any of them were sent to primary village to be reborn whoever was behind this attack would delete them, so he did the only thing he could think of. He sent Joe to the human world. Hopefully he would be alright and make his way back when he healed up.   
Soon after Jyou, Sora and Mimi fell and Tai did the same to them. He focused on his will for them to meet again. Ken and Daisuke didn’t fall so much as run out of energy. They reverted to being much younger than Jyou had. Tai sent them through and Miyako soon after.   
Iori was badly hit and Tai had to focus on keeping his data together while sending him through, but due to the damage it might take a bit before he reformed enough to show up in the human world.   
Now it was just Tai, Matt and Koushiro. The digimon pushed passed the pair and stormed the castle.  
“HIKARI!”  
The pair shouted as they raced to beat the digimon before they got to the nursery. However they were too late and they arrived just in time to see Myra and Jim’s data scatter. They broke the control on the attacking digimon and, as the digimon ran, went over to the cribs. They almost sobbed in relief seeing that Hikari and Takeru were unharmed. Tai gathered Hikari carefully in his arms and Matt did the same for Takeru. They ran out of the nursery not wanting to be boxed in if they got attacked.  
Then Tai saw his worst nightmare. The abomination had found them and hit Matt. Matt reverted to looking about five years old and his eyes held protest when he saw what Tai was about to do.  
“Tai don’t.”  
“Matt I have to. You need to keep Takeru safe and you can’t fight like that.”  
Matt didn’t get the chance to protest again as he and Takeru were sent to the human world. As Tai quickly fled to the garden Koushiro shouted after him,  
“Tai I’ve got it!”  
Koushiro tossed a small device to him before getting hit by the abomination and sent to the human world. Tai looked at the device which showed a diagram of the abomination and just where to hit.  
“Thank you Koushiro. This will take a lot of energy, but I know I can do it.”  
Tai carefully cloaked his tiny daughter in his energy to make sure she wouldn’t be hurt by what he was about to do. He turned to the abomination, gathered a good portion of his energy and focused on the spots Koushiro pointed out.  
“Blazing Spirals!”  
As Tai shrunk down he smiled at seeing the abomination burst into pieces. With the last of his energy he pushed himself and Hikari into the human world. When he arrived he checked his surroundings seeing that it was dark out. As he was looking around Hikari woke up and began to cry.  
“Oh no please don’t cry. Daddy’s here. I’ve got you. I know I’m not as good as papa, but maybe I can do for now. We’ll find him Hikari I promise.”  
Hikari snuffled and nuzzled into her father’s chest thankfully finished crying. Tai smiled down at her when he heard footsteps. He looked over and saw a young couple walking together, soon after the couple saw him.  
“Oh my, what are you two doing out here by yourselves. You can’t be older than five that’s far too young to be watching a baby.”  
Tai wanted to protest that he was perfectly capable of watching his daughter and was much older than he looked, but he knew the humans would never believe him. So he decided to play human for now.  
“I’m Taichi and this is my baby sister Hikari.”  
It hurt not being able to state proudly that she was his daughter, but he looked far too young to have a child.  
“I’m Yuuko and this is my husband Susumu. How old are Taichi?”  
“I’m five and Hikari is seven months old.”  
“You’re very smart being able to remember that.”  
“Thank you.”  
“Do you live nearby?”  
Tai shook his head. This he could be fairly honest about. He was a long way from home.  
“Where are your parents?”  
This too was something Tai felt he could be honest about.  
“They died.”  
The woman held a hand to her lips and looked at him and Hikari in sympathy. The couple looked at each other for a few moments and seemed to come to an agreement. Tai found himself missing Matt. They could have conversations like that a lot.  
“Taichi, why don’t you and Hikari come with us for tonight and we can see about finding some of your family tomorrow.”  
Tai nodded, he might be low on power at the moment, but he could sense that the two were good people.  
“Sorry we don’t have a crib for Hikari but I think we can work something out. You can sleep in the spare bedroom.”  
“Hikari can sleep on the bed with me we’ve done it before.”  
“Do you need anything?”  
“An extra blanket would be nice to curl around her. She had a special pillow but I couldn’t bring it with me.”  
“No problem.”  
Tai investigated the spare bedroom and as soon as Yuuko brought him the blanket he carefully folded it around Hikari so she had her own little bed to sleep in and then he curled himself around her as best he could in his small form.


	3. A Second chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they meet again

When morning came he woke up early to the sound of someone entering the room. Looking over he saw it was Yuuko and sat up slowly hoping he wouldn’t startle her.  
“You’re up early would you like some breakfast?”  
Tai nodded not feeling up to speaking yet and carefully picked up Hikari and brought her with him over to the table.  
“You’re a good big brother. She’s lucky to have you.”  
Tai smiled lightly at the comment and began eating the cereal that was placed in front of him. The sleep had helped him regain some of his energy, but given the fact that he was in the human world and the fact he would need to hide his training it would probably take years to get back to normal.  
“I don’t have any baby food, but I have some applesauce would you like to feed Hikari?”  
Tai nodded and looked at the small bowl of applesauce placed in front of him. The food was different here. He used a small amount of the energy he regained to make sure the food would be ok for Hikari and then began feeding her. She seemed to enjoy it and when she finished she giggled and wiggled closer to Tai.  
Soon after Susumu came in and ate his own breakfast than the four of them left the apartment. The couple brought Tai and Hikari to a police department.  
“Taichi, do you know what your last name is?”  
“It’s Yagami using the characters for eight and God.”  
“That’s quite a coincidence our last name is Kamiya using the characters for God and eight.”  
As expected talking to the police didn’t help and no family was found. Tai made plans in his head of what to do if they tried to separate him from Hikari. Then something happened that Tai didn’t expect.  
“Could we take them in?”  
Tai shot Mrs. Kamiya a surprised look.  
“What do you mean?”  
“My husband and I are unable to have children. Having Taichi and Hikari would be a blessing.”  
Tai stared not quite gaping, but definitely shocked. This couple didn’t know him, but they were willing to take him and his daughter in. Tai found himself touched by the young couple and when they came to a decision they went to a social worker to find out what they needed to do to adopt them. Eventually Taichi and Hikari Yagami became Tai and Kari Kamiya.  
Tai wondered if this was a good thing, but in the end decided it was for the best. With a family caring for him, he would recover quicker. It was also better to go with the people he knew were good than to risk ending up with someone who wasn’t. Tai then carefully set a lock on his growth so rather than shooting past some ages he would age like a human. Luckily he didn’t need to use this on Hikari as she would age like a human anyway until she was somewhere in her 20s. With That Tai settled in to wait for his powers to grow enough that he could find his friends and return to his kingdom.  
For the next few years he watched over Hikari as she grew. Her hair was brown like Tai’s, but not quite as dark, she had Yamato’s pale skin and lithe skeletal structure, but the biggest shock came with her eyes. They weren’t blue like Matt’s or brown like his. Her eyes were a reddish brown like his mother’s had been. Every time she hit a new stage of life he wished all over again that Yamato was with him. It made him want to cry sometimes knowing that Yamato missed her first words, her first steps, and teething.   
Tai did his best to watch over her and got upset when his human parents sent him to school. It hurt him that for the hours he was at school he was missing part of Hikari’s life. Every day he trained to regain his powers faster. He often brought Hikari with him to watch. She didn’t know what he was doing, but that wasn’t important. Soon he would start training her. She was almost four and that was how old he was when he began his training. He decided the first thing to do was to teach her to play a human game called soccer. It would help with her strength, speed, and coordination.  
Tai was grateful for an easy way to cover up his training. It would seem like he was just playing with Hikari. He thought about telling the Kamiya’s who and what they were, but felt they wouldn’t believe him and he didn’t have the energy to spare to prove it just yet. With the way his energy was returning so far he estimated that Kari would be 8 and he would appear about 13 by the time he could start using his abilities the way he used to. It would take another year or so after that for it to return completely. He wished Koushiro was with him. Taichi may be a lot more intelligent than most people gave him credit for, but Koushiro was better with numbers.  
Tai took a moment to miss his friends, and then continued with his training. One of the benefits of the school he went to was the gym class helped him get part of the training he needed to have each day so he didn’t need to take it out of the time he spent with Hikari. One of the downsides was needing to hide how much he knew. He tried to get decent scores, but ones that wouldn’t gain him too much attention.  
Then when Kari was four she got sick. Tai was stunned. He wondered how it was possible for her to get sick. Tai had been told to watch her and was conflicted. It would damage his progress if he didn’t get any training in, but he didn’t want to leave her alone. After a while he decided to bring her outside with him.   
His family was predominately fire aligned so the heat shouldn’t affect Kari, on the contrary it should help her feel better, so he carried her to the nearby park and sat her down on a bench and began to kick a soccer ball around practicing the different tricks he could do with it. After a while of practicing he noticed Hikari get up and decided to start on the first part of her training which would be showing her to kick a soccer ball properly.  
He carefully started to kick the ball toward her and they passed it back and forth for a few minutes when suddenly one of her shots went way off course.  
“No Kari you’ve got to be sure of your aim before you kick the ball or there’s no point.”  
Then he looked up and saw she had collapsed.  
“HIKARI!!”  
The next few hours were a blur. The only thing he fully remembered was his human mother slapping him for taking Kari outside. When he was finally allowed in her room he planted himself in the chair by her bed. As he sat there Tai wondered what had happened that made her illness get so much worse in such a short amount of time. Then a thought occurred to him that didn’t before. Fire was a dominant trait, but that didn’t mean Hikari was aligned with fire like he was.  
“Oh Kari. It looks like you take after your papa more than you do me.”  
Yamato was water aligned. He needed cold to recover not heat. He also had to monitor how much cold. With water types too much cold could be just as damaging as the heat. Tai extended a hand and placed it on Kari’s forehead. He should have done this earlier, but he’d been so distracted. He reached out with his energy and confirmed it. Hikari was water aligned just like Matt.  
“I’m so sorry baby girl. I never thought I’d make you sicker.”  
It was then that Tai decided he needed to get someone else to watch her in case something like this happened again. He went to the computer. He wasn’t strong enough to make a hop but with the help of a computer he could probably pull a digimon through. It would take some energy but not as much as it would if he tried to do this without a computer. He placed his hand on the monitor and focused on the digital world and pulling a digimon through while trying to hide his energy signature so no one could find him. Finally it was done and he stared at the egg that was now there.  
Tai went over to the egg and held it gently. From the feel of it the egg was going to be a botamon that would digivolve into a Koromon. Tai was pleased with what he got. Koromon were extremely brave and protective. He gently rubbed the egg so it would hatch. Since they weren’t in Primary Village no cradle would appear, but it shouldn’t take to long for it to digivolve as long as Tai gave it enough attention.   
Tai placed the young digimon next to him a drifted off to sleep. Sure enough when he woke up there was Koromon. He went over to Kari’s room and was pleased to see she was looking better. As if feeling him watching her, Kari stirred and soon woke up.  
“Kari?”  
“Yes Tai-nii?”  
Tai held back a wince. It got better with time, but he still wished Kari could call him daddy. He knew it wouldn’t happen for years, but it didn’t stop him from wishing. He carefully held out the Koromon.  
“Kari this is Koromon. He’ll play with you, but you can’t show mom or dad ok?”  
“Ok Tai.”  
The next few days went well as Kari recovered from her bout with pneumonia. Koromon watched her while Tai did his training in the park and by the time Kari was feeling better he had digivolved into Agumon. Now that Kari was feeling better he took her and Agumon out to play. Agumon started running around with Kari on his back when something happened. Tai heard a cracking sound and when he looked over he saw a Parrotmon.   
What made matters worse was that Parrotmon bore the same energy signature as the controlled Digimon that attacked Virtue Castle. He knew that this moment was critical. He needed to help Agumon defeat Parrotmon without revealing himself. He believed that due to his worry over Kari he wasn’t as careful as he should have been when pulling a digi-egg through the computer that is what led Parrotmon here. If he did this right he could make it seem like he wasn’t here.  
When Parrotmon attacked, Agumon digivolved into Greymon to fight back. The battle was fierce. The surrounding area was damaged, but after almost being defeated Greymon managed to beat Parrotmon. With the pull Greymon and Parrotmon were returned to the digital world. Tai thought about pulling another egg through but in the end decided not to risk it. Sometime after the attack his parents decided to move to Odaiba. This distressed Tai as it meant he might be taken away from his people, but then again he hadn’t found any of them yet anyway so maybe they had ended up somewhere else.  
The years continued passing and soon enough Tai was turning 13. He was able to use some of his powers without the risk of setting back his progress. It was freeing not having to be as careful. What he was looking forward to was going to camp with Hikari. It meant he could train her more without getting spotted and if things went well maybe he could tell her the full truth.  
His plans fell through when upon the day before they had to leave for camp Kari got sick. It wasn’t too bad and Tai made sure the temperature in the apartment was optimal for restoring her health. He wanted to stay home with her, but his parents wanted him to go to camp and unable to think of an excuse to stay home Tai reluctantly was separated from Kari.  
When he arrived at the camp grounds he decided this would be a good place to train. There was a lot of forest in the immediate area which he could use to conceal his activities. It didn’t take him long to put his stuff away, and when he finished he felt something he hadn’t in the longest time.  
“Matt.”  
He looked around and sure enough spotted a shock of blonde hair.  
“Matt!”  
The other boy turned around confusion evident in his eyes.  
“Yes? I’m Matt who are you?”  
Tai was sure he could feel his heart break. There was no playfulness in Matt’s expression only confusion. Not wanting to upset Matt, Tai plastered a fake smile on and said,  
“I’m Taichi, but you can call me Tai.”  
“Well nice to meet you Tai, but I’ve got to find my little brother.”  
Tai figured he must mean Takeru. If Matt lost his memory and was found with Takeru it would be easy to assume they were brothers as like Matt he had blonde hair and blue eyes.  
“If you don’t mind I’ll go with you.”  
Matt shrugged and started looking around. Tai followed him trying not to give in to the impulse to kiss Matt. Tai thought about looking around for Takeru himself, but couldn’t bear to be separated from Matt so soon after finding him again. Sure enough Matt led him to Takeru. The similarities were there, but so were the differences. Matt’s hair was brighter and his eyes were a different shape. The rest of the differences probably wouldn’t be obvious until Takeru was older.  
The 8-year-old still radiated the power of hope although it was obvious he didn’t have any training with it. Tai carefully cloaked Takeru’s power. Takeru could still access it, but as long as he didn’t the only people who would be able to sense his power would be Matt and Tai. It was dangerous otherwise. As the three of them wandered around camp they bumped into more familiar faces. Unfortunately none of them seemed to remember except Tai.  
‘Well at least most of them are here. The only ones missing now are Daisuke, Ken, Iori, and Miyako.’  
Tai spent the day getting to know the others in an attempt to try and spark their memories without bothering them to the point where they would avoid him. He learned Koushiro was now called Izzy which was short for his last name Izumi. Takeru was now TK, but the others seemed to keep their original names. It was an easy enough adjustment to make as on the whole they seemed the same. Izzy was still glued to his computer, Mimi was dressed in all pink, Joe was still fretting about getting sick, Sora was still a tomboy with a big heart, TK was growing well, but Tai hadn’t seen him since he was a baby so making notes on his personality wasn’t possible.  
Then there was Matt. Matt seems like he was when they really first met. He was slightly standoffish, but luckily this time Tai knew he wasn’t being intentionally mean or rude, he was just a little shy. He never wanted to admit it though as it would hurt his reputation, even back in the digital world he was popular and had a reputation for being aloof.  
He’d only been at the camp for about a day when it happened. It began to snow. Tai had been resting in a tree soaking up the sun when he felt a cold drop against his cheek. He was suddenly grateful to be aligned with fire as it meant he could barely feel the cold. As soon as the sudden blizzard ended he headed outside commenting on the canoe races probably being cancelled so they should have toboggan races instead. TK followed quickly after wanting to build a snowman and he was closely trailed by Matt.  
‘It looks like Matt hasn’t lost his protective instinct.’  
Next out was Sora who was probably cold due to her lack of sleeves. Next was Joe then Mimi and finally Izzy was called out by Tai when he saw lights in the sky. The seven of them gazed at the lights wondering what it was. Joe ever the worrier said,  
“I really think we ought to get back inside before we all come down with pneumonia.”  
Then Matt cut in saying,  
“And miss this? The sky is like short-circuiting.”  
Tai almost laughed when he saw something appearing behind the lights. It looked like seven small meteors that were headed right towards them. They ducked down to avoid being hurt. Matt curled around TK. Luckily no one was hurt. From the holes something began to float up and when it was about eye level Tai grabbed his, the others quickly followed suit.  
‘I think they subconsciously recognize me if they’re so willing to follow my lead and this definitely has come from the digital world, but what is it?’  
Sora soon asked the same question and Izzy commented that it appeared to be some kind of digital apparatus. Before anything more could be discussed a wave burst up from the ground and then they were falling. Tai felt himself being pulled through a portal and hoped they were going somewhere familiar.


	4. File Island

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> first digivolutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey sorry about not updating my laptop is unfortunately being repaired so until I get it back I can't post a new chapter please be patient I should be able to get the next one up in about a week

He must have passed out because the next thing he knew someone was calling his name. He opened his eyes and jolted up startled by the fact that there was a Koromon sitting on top of him  
“Hey you don’t need to be afraid of me, I’m your friend, I’m your friend, I’m your friend! Everything’s gonna be ok now Tai! I’ve been waiting for you!”  
With that the Koromon jumped into his arms and he got a good sense for it. It wasn’t like ordinary Koromon this one was specially bonded to him.  
“Waiting for me?”  
“My name’s Koromon and we’re partners!”  
All things considered Koromon was probably a good choice to be bonded to, nevertheless Tai was a bit upset that it didn’t know who he really was even after being bonded to him so he decided to tease it a little,  
“Koromon, that means talking head?”  
“It means ‘brave little warrior’ and don’t forget it Tai.”  
Tai held back a smile and tried to find out what was going on when he heard movement behind him that turned out to be Izzy and a Motimon. Tai figured the Motimon must be bonded to Izzy like Koromon was to him. Then upon wondering where they were the digimon explained they were in digi-world this didn’t tell Tai their exact location so he decided to check out the area from a high tree to see if he could figure out where in the digital world he was.  
Looking around, while it was different from when he was last here, the similarities were undeniable. He was on File Island. It was a training ground he made for digimon to train them up so they wouldn’t be badly hurt by stronger digimon. It was why Primary Village was there. File Island was hard to find in the middle of the ocean and you had to be fairly strong to gather the things needed to leave.  
Tai was soon cut from his musings by what appeared to be a Kuwagamon. Even though it was a hopeless battle Koromon launched itself at the large red beetle. As soon as they were both on the ground Tai commended it for its bravery. Their talk was interrupted when the Kuwagamon headed back from them. Motimon quickly lead them to a hiding tree. When Tai felt Kuwagamon leave he heard Sora call out to them. When he left the tree he saw Sora and a Yokomon.  
‘Whoever bonded these digimon to us sure got a good scan. I wonder who they picked for the others.’  
Tai didn’t have to wait long as soon a Tokomon burst out of the trees.  
‘A Tokomon huh, that’s a holy beast so it’s probably bonded to TK.’  
Sure enough TK soon came out after quickly followed by Matt who had a Tsunomon tucked under his arm.  
‘Fitting Tsunomon is incredibly loyal and aligned with ice-fire.’  
Soon after Joe came running towards them being pursued by a Bukamon.  
‘Well personality wise maybe a Bukamon will get Joe to loosen up a little. They’re pranksters but very protective and know when they’ve crossed a line. It looks like we’re only missing Mimi now.’  
The digimon introduced themselves. The Koromon popped up with,  
“We’re not just digimon we’re much more than that we’re kinda cute,”  
“And very loyal,” Tsunomon  
“With beautiful hair,” Yokomon  
“Or maybe no hair at all,” Motimon  
“We can be funny ha!” Bukamon  
“And adorable,” Tokomon  
Tai then took point in introducing the six of them so that all the digimon would know their names instead of just the one they were bonded too. When he finished Sora chimed in saying  
“Hey what happened to that girl with the funny pink hat?”  
“Now, now her name is Mimi.”  
“Well perhaps she’s off picking flowers or going on a nature hike”  
They were pulled from musing when they heard Mimi scream and run over to see her running with a Tanemon. They had to run from Kuwagamon which irritated Tai,  
‘If only I had the strength to fight, but I’m still a few months from being recovered enough.’  
Soon they were backed up to a cliff with no way down. Then the digimon were all determined to fight and shot pink bubbles at the Kuwagamon causing it to crash into the trees, but hit each of the digimon as it passed. The digimon were still determined to fight even though they were injured. They each held their digimon close in an attempt to protect them. When Kuwagamon came out of the trees, their digimon burst from their arms and ran over to it which is when they digivolved.  
“Koromon digivolve to Agumon.”  
“Yokomon digivolve to Biyomon.”  
“Motimon digivolve to Tentomon.”  
“Tsunomon digivolve to Gabumon.”  
“Tokomon digivolve to Patamon.”  
“Bukamon digivolve to Gomamon.”  
“Tanemon digivolve to Palmon.”  
With that the digimon managed to fight better against the Kuwagamon. They used their combined strength to send him crashing back to the trees. However just when they thought they beat it, it broke off the ledge they were standing on which caused them to plunge towards the river. Each of the digimon tried to help their partners, but they weren’t currently strong enough. Soon they hit the water, but luckily Gomamon summoned up fish to serve as a boat and they soon got to shore. Then the digimon explained their new names and how they digivolved because of the bond.  
Tai knew digivolving was hard. After he digivolved he was always extremely hungry and tired. Then they had to decide what they were going to do. Matt wanted to explore, but Joe wanted to stay put. Mimi was against returning on the possibility of running into a digimon like Kuwagamon. Tai asked Agumon if he’d seen any other humans. Agumon’s response confirmed something he suspected, but hoped wasn’t true. His whole kingdom had been destroyed. Even though they were digimon almost half the citizens had human like appearances.  
It must have happened a long time ago which confused Tai as he’d only been gone for 8 years. He shook off his musings to continue following the conversation. Eventually Tai got tired of listening to the others argue and just started walking towards the ocean. He didn’t want to stay on File Island although he probably shouldn’t leave until the others had trained a little more. As they walked they discussed more about the digital world until they got to the beach and heard a phone ringing.  
When Tai got to the booth it stopped ringing. Izzy started theorizing about aliens and each of them chose a booth to try and make a call. Eventually everyone but Joe gave up on the phones. They decided to stay and rest for a while.  
“Very curious does Joe always behave like this?” Izzy  
“Every single day.” Tai  
“No matter what number or how many times he dials those phones aren’t going to work.”  
Tai got up to continue searching for a boat, but Matt stopped him. He used the fact that the others still needed rest to keep Tai from moving. Tai was about to point out that he could just go by himself and come back when he finds something, but decided it wasn’t worth the possible argument. He never liked arguing with Matt. Then the topic of food was brought up. No one had food besides TK and then they saw Joe had the emergency rations.  
Then they went around asking who had what. Tai only pointed out the mini telescope he had. He also had a locket, but didn’t want anyone to know about it. Inside it were pictures that would be tough to explain. On the right side was a picture of him and Matt and on the left was a picture of Matt and Hikari that was taken shortly after she was born. The look on Matt’s face was so full of love. It was beautiful.  
When the rations were split Tai made sure to give some of his food to Agumon. He wasn’t sure when they would get a chance to start foraging and it wasn’t a good idea to let the digimon go hungry as it would keep them from using their powers. Tai was grateful he took this precaution when Shellmon attacked. Sure enough the only one of the digimon strong enough to fight was Agumon, but in his rookie stage he wasn’t strong enough to defeat Shellmon alone.  
Tai tried to help Agumon fight, but he still wasn’t strong enough to use any attacks or summon his fire blade. Then he got caught by Shellmon. Luckily that seemed to be the push that Agumon needed to digivolve into Greymon who quickly defeated Shellmon with a nova blast. Soon after Greymon switched back to Agumon who immediately asked for something to eat this time all the digimon were fed. After the meal they decided it was time to move on.  
Unfortunately they ran into a pair of Monochromon who were fighting over territory. Luckily they were more focused on each other than the group and they were able to escape without injuries. As they walked through the forest Tai noticed the various street signs. Things like that happened every so often as the digital world occasionally copied things from the real world without knowing what they were for.  
Tai was pulled from his contemplation by Mimi complaining about all the walking. Tai wondered why she was like that. Mimi had always been an extremely patient and kind person almost nothing could rile her up and he couldn’t stop the irritated comment that slipped from his lips,  
“Mimi Stop whining.”  
“No! My feet hurt!”  
Then the digimon suggested she take her shoes off. Tai thought about it as he often preferred being without shoes, but in the end decided it was a bad idea as he was supposed to be human. Then Izzy made a comment that basically said it was getting dark.  
“What a weird sunset.” Sora  
“This whole Island is weird and who know what will come out at night.”  
Then Tentomon sensed that there was water nearby and they went to check it out to see if it would be a good place to camp. They all agreed it would be alright, but were wary about sleeping outside. Then they saw a trolley car light up. They were a bit worried after what happened with the phone booths, but decided it was worth the risk to check it out. They decided it would make a good place to sleep and set about getting food. Most of the digimon gathered fruit. TK and Izzy were trying to fish but Gomamon was swimming around the area. Sora and Joe went to get firewood. Agumon then lit it with a small burst of fire.  
Soon TK and Izzy showed up with the fish they caught. Tai simply grabbed a fish and waved it over the fire. As he was fire aligned it wouldn’t burn him even though he was in human form. The heat didn’t bother him, but he didn’t like having to hold the fish while it cooked.  
“This is where I wish we had a microwave,” Tai mumbled under his breath. He nearly started when he heard Matt say,  
“Me too because you’re about to lose your fingers. Why don’t you use a stick?”  
Tai snarked at him a bit, but Matt was a cool as ever. Falling back into such banter brought a smile to his face. When the food was ready everyone began to eat but TK who commented that his mom didn’t let him eat with his fingers. Matt started to convince him it was alright and Tai joined in to help. As he walked away he started wondering about what TK had said. It made it seem like he and Matt hadn’t grown up together. He tried talking to Sora about it, but they got interrupted by Joe talking about the stars. Soon the digimon started to drift off and they decided it was time to get some sleep.  
Upon hearing Mimi’s wish for a warm blanket Tai began to tease Gabumon knowing that as a general Gabumon were shy and hating being seen without their fur coat. Unfortunately this began an argument with Matt. In the end Tai was on first watch, then Matt, then Joe and Izzy would finish the night. The rest would sleep in the trolley. Tai sat outside with a small fire going and tried to stay awake.  
When he went to splash water on his face he saw Matt and worried he was there to fight again instead he apologized so Tai took the opportunity to ask about him and TK. Matt told him that his parents were divorced so he lived with their dad and TK lived with their mom. Then he seemed to get embarrassed and ran off. Then Tai heard a sound he hadn’t heard in years. Matt was playing the harmonica. When Tai looked over he got a shock. It wasn’t just any Harmonica it was the one Tai had made for him. Tai felt himself relax as he remembered that day.  
*flashback*  
“Matt!”  
“Tai? What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in a meeting?”  
“We finished early and I couldn’t wait to see you. I have something for you.”  
“You have something for me? Why?”  
“Well I know how much you love music and how when you last fought your harmonica got destroyed because you accidentally left it in your pocket. So I made this for you.”  
Tai held out the shining metal harmonica and it gleamed in the light.  
“It’s made of a really tough metal so even if you fight with it, it should be fine.”  
“Tai this is… this metal is-”  
“Do you like it? I can get something else if you don’t.” Tai said beginning to worry. Rather than respond Matt simply pulled Tai in for a gentle kiss.  
*flashback end*  
Tai was pulled from his thoughts when the fire started sparking. Then the land they were on started shaking revealing a Seadramon. Its tail had been on the land and it dragged them to the center of the lake. Then Matt and Gabumon jumped into the water to get to them. The digimon tried attacking, but they didn’t have any affect. Tai asked if Agumon could digivolve, but Agumon was still recovering. Then TK fell in the water and Matt swam away to distract the Seadramon.  
Soon Tai saw Matt captured by its tail. He was prepared to risk his own life and set his recovery back by years if needed in order to save Matt, but then he saw something. Gabumon was digivolving.  
“Gabumon digivolve to Garurumon.”  
Garurumon attacked easily releasing Matt. Then he started attacking Seadramon as Tentomon started listing off facts about him. Finally Garurumon took down Seadramon with a Howling Blaster before returning to being Gabumon. Soon the others came to the conclusion that the digimon digivolved when their human partner was in danger.  
As everyone settled down to rest more Tai looked over at Matt and TK and noted with astonishment that Matt hadn’t let go of the harmonica even when he was being crushed. It brought hope to Tai as he felt it might be a sign that Matt knew the importance of the harmonica. After all the metal was taken from the armor of his Ryukomon form. The metal regenerated after he next digivolved, but Matt had realized where it came from and always had the harmonica with him. He knew the significance of giving your partner a piece of you like that. Tai watched the pair for a little longer before turning to get some rest.


	5. The Gears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK!!! sorry for the delay my laptop just got back from the computer hospital

When he woke up they continued walking around the forest hoping to see the end. As they were walking they saw something small and black fly over their heads and Izzy set off on his alien theory again. As they finished talking about it Sora wanted to continue while Matt chimed in about them having no destination. Tai then mentioned he wanted to keep going to see if they could find intelligent life.   
Biyomon took offence to that taking it as Tai stating that Digimon weren’t intelligent. Tai silently thought that it would be hypocritical of him while Sora explained to Biyomon what he meant. As Sora continued talking the rest of them started walking and Matt said,  
“Moving right along folks, keep it moving our next stop on the tour will be the forest of irrelevant road signs, no pictures please.”  
They continued walking through the forest until Matt spotted some telephone poles. They were trying to decide if they should follow them or not when they saw the black thing again. It seemed to crash into a nearby mountain. They walked along the poles and Tai tried to remember if there was anything in the area. Even before he left the digital world it had been some time since he was last on File Island and it had changed somewhat. Walking in the desert like area was harsh and they were all sweating and wondering if it might be better to turn back to the forest before they risk dehydration.  
Tai tried to keep them moving as he was sure there was something along this path he just couldn’t remember what it was and how much father it would be. Eventually Tai spotted a village with his mini telescope. As they arrived in the village they were greeted by the Yokomon. Biyomon introduced them as humans and Tai almost flinched. It felt wrong to lie to the Yokomon who were always honest and friendly, but Biyomon didn’t know. Biyomon talked to the Yokomon and eventually the group was invited to stay for dinner. Tai tried to hide his lack of enthusiasm, but he knew the Yokomon only ate seeds. It wasn’t bad, but Tai preferred a bit more diversity for his meals. Then TK pointed out the fountain, but before any of them could get some water flames erupted from the center.  
They tried the other water sources, but they had all dried up. Then Matt mentioned the black gear they had seen crash into the mountain. The Yokomon mentioned it was guarded by Meramon and Tai looked with his telescope and saw Meramon was heading towards the village and he sounded like he was in a lot of pain. They decided to evacuate to the ship that was in the lake. Biyomon kept back to make sure all the Yokomon made it, but ended up getting attacked by Meramon. They tried attacking back, but none of the attacks seemed to work.  
Tai tried to figure out why Meramon was in so much pain before he dropped into the remains of the lake. Then Biyomon digivolved into Birdramon and her purifying flames drove the black gear from Meramon who returned to normal. It was easy to conclude that the black gear was what made him go crazy. He left with a promise not to burn their village again and the lake quickly filled up with water again.   
When they got settled the Yokomon brought out bowls of seeds for them to eat. Sora and Joe decided against eating, but the rest dug in. Tai was also thinking about the black gear that seemed to be controlling Meramon. He thought it might be the same person who attacked his home, but while the concept was the same the energy signature was different.  
Tai tried not to let his dark thoughts show on his face and it was a good thing the others were all distracted by eating. He missed his home and all the people who lived there. Would it even be possible to rebuild? Agumon said there weren’t any other humans, but File Island was a bit isolated. Tai decided he would worry about it when the time came. Until then he had to figure out what to do next.  
They soon left the village of Yokomon and continued walking after a while Mimi and TK collapsed so they decided it was time for a break. Izzy was still trying to use his laptop, but Tai knew it wouldn’t work unless it was adapted to work in the digital world. Then Tai decided he could do that for Izzy, but wondered how he could without the others figuring out something was up.   
He decided to play up his persona and give the laptop a few whacks while using his energy to connect the laptop to the digital world. Izzy quickly snatched his laptop back and yelled at Tai and Sora joined him. Tai almost smiled, but knew it would just make them mad. He looked away in a pretend pout and noticed smoke in the distance. He decided to check it out hoping nothing bad was happening.   
As he predicted as he was leaving he heard Izzy’s delight at his laptop working. When he got to the edge he saw the smoke was coming from a factory and called the others over. They decided to enter and explore. Biyomon heard something so Tai, Sora and Joe went to check it out. They found an Andromon caught up in a bunch of gears.   
They decided to pull him out. However when they finally got him loose he woke up and started attacking them. Tai had Agumon shoot at the roof. The fire burned through the ropes holding up some beams which then dropped on Andromon giving them time to get away. He soon was chasing after them and they ran outside.  
Meanwhile Izzy was inside the factory’s power source trying to decode the programing on the wall while talking to Tentomon.  
“I’m just trying to figure out how we all got to this place, and I’d like to know more about you digimon. Perhaps prove some of my theories.”  
“What are you theorizing about? What’s the big mystery? I am who I am, I’m not hiding anything.”  
“Really?”  
“I simply can’t understand this preoccupation with who you are. Is there some kind of deep dark secret in your origins?”  
“Oh well-“   
Izzy knew Tentomon didn’t mean anything by it, but he couldn’t help but think back to the time he overheard his parents talking. It was how he found out he was adopted. He was pulled from his thoughts by Tentomon who pointed out the screen where the data started moving on its own. Also his digivice began to glow, but before he could figure out what was going on Tentomon started wriggling from pain so Izzy quickly shut everything down. He was a bit sad at not being able to figure everything out, but Tentomon was more important.  
Back with the others Tai was getting frustrated with Andromon chasing them and jumped onto a machine using it to lift Andromon off the ground so he couldn’t move. It wouldn’t stop him for long, but it would hopefully give them enough time to get to the others. Tai ran up just in time for Izzy to exclaim that basic data was alive in the digital world.   
Before they could leave Andromon burst through the ground and shot missiles at them. TK was too afraid to get out of the way and Gabumon digivolved into Garurumon to protect him by knocking the missiles away, then Agumon digivolved into Greymon to destroy them. The pair tried to fight Andromon, but even together it seemed they weren’t strong enough.   
When it seemed they were going to lose Tentomon digivolved to Kabuterimon and Izzy found out that Andromon had a weak spot in one of his legs. With an elector shocker Kabuterimon dislodged a black gear from Andromon’s leg and destroyed it. With that Andromon returned to normal and apologized. He pointed out that they could leave the factory through the sewers. As they walked TK asked Izzy if the computer program would work on Patamon like it did with Tentomon, but it didn’t. TK was a bit disappointed, but cheered up as they continued walking.


	6. Split and Come Back Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> since I was gone for so long and the last cha was short I decided to post 2 chaps in one day aren't I great!

They decided to sing as they walked through the tunnels, but then Sora was hit with a bout of homesickness and they began to talk about what they each missed,  
”I miss Hikari and playing sports.” They didn’t have soccer in the digital world.  
“Games, I wasn’t far from beating Matt on my video games.” TK said but Matt denied being anywhere close to losing and mentioned missing the food he got on Sundays. Joe worried about the schoolwork he might be missing. Mimi missed going on vacation. Izzy missed the information he had access to. Their musings were interrupted when a crowd of Numemon started chasing them. Luckily Numemon didn’t like going near the light.  
They continued walking until they came across a group of vending machines. Mimi decided to see if any of them work only to find a Numemon inside. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but then clouds blocked the sun. As they were running from the Numemon a Monzaemon appeared. Tai’s memory is rather hazy for a while after that.   
He remembered getting hit with a heart and then the next thing he knew he was in Toy Town. He found out from Mimi that Monzaemon, under the control of a black gear, made it so the toys played with them. Mimi defeated him, with the help of the Numemon, when Palmon digivolved into Togemon. To make up for what happened while under the control of the black gear he let them experience a real Heart Hug. Tai felt a rush of bliss wash over him and it filled him with a sense of peace he hadn’t had since the attack. He knew it wouldn’t last long so he decided to relish in it while he could.  
It was getting frustrating being around his friends without them remembering anything. Part of him just wanted to blurt it all out, but he knew they had to remember it on their own. If he tried to force it he risked damaging their minds or creating false memories. When they left Toy Town it started getting colder which set Joe off on everything that could happen.   
Tai then mentioned he wasn’t even that cold. Of course he didn’t mention it was because his internal fire kept him warmer than average. The others looked at him like he was crazy. Then he tossed out a few things they could do if it snowed which cheered them up. They started telling the digimon some of the things they did, but Joe seemed a little down. He warned them about how dangerous it would be if the temperature dropped too much.   
Tai wasn’t worried it wouldn’t take much for him to keep the others warm enough. Plus with Agumon they could make a fire easily. Finally they crossed into a snowy area. Joe and Matt were worried about crossing it and Tai pointed out they either crossed it or climbed the mountain. Then Agumon seemed to sense something. As the others sniffed they saw steam rising and followed it.   
They hoped to find hot springs, but the water they found was too hot to bathe in. If they tried they’d all be cooked even Tai. At least being near the pool kept them warm, even if they couldn’t take a dip, then TK spotted a refrigerator. Inside were a bunch of eggs.   
They cooked the eggs in many different ways and then got into a discussion about the different things they preferred to have with their eggs. This unfortunately led to a small argument between Joe and Gomamon which Matt interrupted. Joe seemed to be buckling under the stress of trying to be responsible for all of them.   
As he was thinking, Matt and Tai got into an argument. Tai wanted to climb Infinity Mountain, but Matt thought it was too dangerous. Matt didn’t know it, but they have had similar arguments before whenever Tai wanted to do something Matt believed was dangerous.   
Normally Tai would present a logical argument and carefully persuade Matt, unfortunately not only was he under the stress of all that had happened, but his human body was in the early throes of puberty which had him as off balance as it did the first time. His temper was running high and then Joe got involved which didn’t help.  
In the end, Sora stopped them with the fact that they needed to find shelter before it got dark. When they woke up to Sora’s shout they saw the note Joe left. Biyomon digivolved to Birdramon and gave Sora, Tai and Agumon a lift. They arrive to see Joe getting attacked and managed to help.  
Joe had tried to climb the mountain with Gomamon and they saw that the black gears were coming from somewhere on the peak. Before they could find out where they saw a black gear hit Unimon which cause him to attack them. When Birdramon got hit Agumon digivolved, but as he couldn’t fly Unimon had the advantage. Joe tried to help by jumping on Unimon’s back to remove the gear, but it was stuck.   
When the Unimon bucked Joe off, Gomamon digivolved into Ikkakumon to save him. One of Ikkakumon’s Harpoon Torpedo’s destroyed the black gear freeing Unimon. Since they were close enough to the top the group decided to finish the trip. As they stood there they got a look at all the different kinds of terrain on File Island. This is what made it a good training ground.   
As they continued wandering around the mountain they wondered what they should do and if they could leave. Tai wondered where Leomon was. Leomon was the main protector of File Island. Tai tried to make a map of the island, but he’d never been good at drawing, something which Matt and Sora were quick to point out. At least Tai could understand his drawing.   
Then they heard a crash and saw Leomon. The digimon weren’t frightened, but Tai could sense the dark energy surrounding Leomon. When Leomon started to attack they tried to run, but they were boxed in by Ogremon. When Agumon shot a fireball at Leomon Tai’s map caught fire, but this didn’t bother him too much.   
When the pair attacked, all the digimon digivolved except for Patamon, but before they could fight an avalanche of rocks came down. The digimon destroyed the rocks, but reverted back to their rookie stages from exhaustion. This enabled Ogremon and Leomon to escape. All the digimon needed a good night’s rest and some food. They didn’t know where they were going to rest when they spotted a large house.   
When they entered they didn’t see anybody. Then Gabumon smelled food and led them to what appeared to be a dining area. Afterwards they got cleaned up and found a room to sleep in. They all worried about how long they have been away, but tried to push it from their thoughts and get some sleep. At around 3 in the morning Tai woke up feeling uneasy and accompanied Agumon to the bathroom.   
As Tai was waiting Ogremon appeared. They ran to the room to warn the others, but Leomon stopped them. Then Tai felt an evil presence and saw Devimon. Devimon banished the illusion and scattered the others. Even the food had been an illusion which meant they were too weak to fight. Devimon then used his power to split the Island.   
Leomon was about to kill Tai when his digivice glowed and broke the control on Leomon who stayed behind to give Tai and Agumon time to escape. Tai knew it was likely that Devimon put Leomon back under his control and wished he had the strength to save him. Being back in the digital world had accelerated his recovery, but he was still quite a ways from being able to digivolve.   
Tai and Agumon drifted for a while before they crashed into an iceberg. Luckily they soon found Tai’s clothes. He could keep himself warm, but it took energy and he felt uncomfortable in nothing, but his underwear. They were frozen solid, but Agumon fixed that.  
‘It’s lucky I already made them flame resistant or I might not have clothes right now,’ Tai thought as he got dressed. When he finished getting ready he was struck with the dilemma of what to do. The pieces of File Island kept drifting farther and farther apart and neither he nor Agumon could fly.   
As he was debating what to do they came across another digimon with a back gear inside them. This one was a Frigimon. Agumon couldn’t digivolve and his pepper breath wasn’t working from a distance. Agumon believed if he could get close enough he might be able to destroy the gear and asked Tai to throw him.   
Tai knew he couldn’t muster up the strength to throw Agumon, but as they slid under Frigimon he thought back on his human experiences and asked Agumon to curl into a ball. Tai had played soccer a lot to train and was proud of the fact that he was his school’s best striker. As Frigimon came towards them Tai kicked Agumon over his head and Agumon destroyed the gear. As an apology Frigimon agreed to take them to the Island where he said he saw a kid with a Gabumon fall.  
‘I’m coming Matt. Just hold on until I get there.’  
Tai was extremely worried about Matt. While the cold didn’t affect Tai much it would affect Matt. His worry was making him agitated and he snapped at Agumon who snapped right back. Frigimon stopped them from fighting and carried them as they were getting too tired to walk.   
It was a bit cold sitting on his shoulders and Tai had to make sure he didn’t heat up too much as he could hurt Frigimon. In spite of the chill his exhaustion won out and he fell asleep. The next morning he woke up to find they had arrived. He searched around the island and soon found one of the beds.   
He started calling around for Matt knowing he must be nearby. Sure enough it wasn’t long before they found Matt and Gabumon. Matt was worried about TK and asked Frigimon if he’d seen any other kids falling.   
Frigimon said if there were other kids they must have fallen on other islands. Tai tried to comfort Matt and reassure him that they’d find TK. Gabumon interrupted their conversation with a sneeze which surprised Tai as due to their fur coat it was rare for a Gabumon to get sick. Then Frigimon left in search of something.  
Thinking about how Matt was, it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. Matt probably almost froze searching for TK and Gabumon would have used his fur to warm Matt up leaving himself vulnerable. To confirm this Tai said,  
“How’d you get sick? You’re the one with the fur around here.” Unfortunately this set Matt off.  
“Stop making fun of him! Leave him alone Tai!”  
“Hey why don’t you chill out Matt? I was only trying to see how we could help him.” And Tai might be a little upset that Matt had put himself at risk. For all that Matt often called Tai reckless he could be just as bad when someone he loved was in danger.  
Agumon led Gabumon to rest for a while and Tai turned to Matt to discuss what to do next. Matt said that the first thing they should do was find the others. He seemed to get upset when Tai pointed out they had no way of reaching the other islands.   
Matt said they could ask Frigimon for help and Tai stated that it would be unfair to ask him. He also wanted to point out that Frigimon wouldn’t be much use as the other islands were warmer so it would take a lot more energy to make ice, but Matt wasn’t listening.   
Tai tried to calm him down, but that only seemed to make it worse. Matt grabbed his shirt, shoved him, basically accused him of not caring about the others, and then he ran off. Tai was caught between being hurt and angry. Tai quickly chased him and tackled him to the ground intent on making him understand. Tai knew how he felt and he mentioned this, but this seemed to set Matt of as he punched him stating that Tai didn’t have a clue how he felt.   
Tai was stunned. Matt had never hit him before outside of sparring. He usually just yelled or stormed off. Tai felt a wave of fury overcome him and he tackled Matt again with the intent of pinning him to the ground. They rolled for a while each trying to gain the upper hand. Finally Tai came out on top, but before he could do anything he noticed that Matt was crying.  
“It’s TK. He’s out there on some strange island and he’s all alone.”   
Tai felt his anger bleed out. He’d never been able to stand seeing Matt cry. The last time he caused Matt to cry it was because he’d been badly injured and he woke up to Matt crying and telling him to hang on. Tai felt like the lowest person on earth for making his love cry. Then their attention was brought to the fact that they were on a cliff by the edge breaking off.   
Tai grabbed Matt’s hand and a branch that had been hanging out. Their digimon tried to reach them, but didn’t have the strength. The situation became worse when Mojyamon showed up. He broke even more of the cliff off causing Matt and Tai to fall along with Gabumon and Agumon. Luckily Frigimon was walking beneath the cliff or they would have gotten badly hurt.   
To their delight he had food and he also had some herbs for Gabumon’s cold. Then Mojyamon found them. Frigimon tried to help, but wasn’t strong enough. Luckily Agumon and Gabumon could digivolve now that they had eaten. With Greymon and Garurumon helping the fight was soon over. When Garurumon hit the gears in the mountain the Islands direction reversed and they were headed back to the center of File Island.


	7. Secrets

With the islands heading back together Tai and Matt found a way to head to one of the other islands. Tai decided to subtly direct them to where primary village should be. He wanted to check on the digi-eggs. He knew Elecmon was very protective of them and fairly strong for his small size, but he was just one digimon and Devimon was sure to have Leomon back under his control. The thought of Devimon ordering an attack on the babies in primary village sent a chill down Tai’s spine and he knew he had to see for himself that they were alright. Thinking of the babies also made him think of Kari. He hoped she was ok.  
He clutched the locket under his shirt and tried to focus on the task at hand. It didn’t take them too long to reach land and they headed to Primary village where Tai could hear some fighting going on. When they heard TK scream Agumon digivolved into Greymon, Gabumon digivolved into Garurumon and Matt climbed on to move faster. When he saw Leomon about to attack TK Garurumon shot a howling blaster.   
They began to fight Leomon and Tai used the distraction to carefully pluck the baby digimon out of Ogremon’s hands. When Ogremon looked over Tai had Greymon attack him. Then as they were all fighting more black gears sunk into Leomon and he started screaming and changing. He grew larger and darker in color. He pushed back Greymon and Garurumon then he grabbed Patamon. Just when the situation seemed hopeless Izzy and Mimi showed up.  
Izzy told Tai that the digivices could destroy the black gears and they prepared to go up against Leomon. Matt was standing in front of TK and Tai walked over shouting to get Leomon’s attention. Then when he was close enough he used his digivice. When Matt saw what he was doing he joined him. They drove out the black gears while Kabuterimon fought Ogremon. After Leomon was released from the control of the black gears he told them about the legend of the digi-destined. As he heard to others talk about going home Tai felt guilty.  
They still hadn’t shown any signs of remembering and he was beginning to wonder if they ever would. So much has happened both good and bad. Then he was pulled out of his thoughts by Matt musing that Devimon was too powerful for them. Tai stood and brought up their spirits as best he could. They seemed motivated and it reminded him of older times when they fought to push back evil one more time. When they all agreed to fight Leomon brought them over to the center in a boat. He pushed swiftly while they rested in preparation.  
When they arrived they saw Devimon gather the black gears to him causing him to grow bigger than the mansion he created. He pressed a shadow attack against them and they couldn’t escape until Ikkakumon shot a few torpedoes at him and Birdramon used a meteor wing. This gave the others time to digivolve. They all moved quickly to attack against Devimon, but he brushed aside their attacks as if they weren’t there. Then he tried attacking TK, but they all rallied to try and prevent it. Each of the Digimon attacked a different limb.   
Then he pushed out his shadow ability to throw them all off and push them back. Nobody could move as Devimon grabbed TK and Patamon with the intent of crushing them. Matt cried out and then a light shown from Devimon’s fist. The light forced his hand open as Patamon digivolved into Angemon. Then Angemon gathered light from the digivices to deal a fatal blow to Devimon. This caused the other digimon to revert to their rookie forms. Ogremon tried to stop Angemon, but he was forced out of Devimon and Angemon punched strait through Devimon.   
Unfortunately this used up all his energy and he began to break apart. TK cried as this happened, but then Angemon’s feathers formed a pile in front of him that glowed and became a digi-egg. With the defeat of Devimon File Island began to reform much to Tai’s relief. He also knew this was only the beginning. There were more dangers to be found than just the ones on File Island. It was time for them to leave. As he was thinking this a light shown on the mountain top and a projection of an old guy appeared.  
He said his name was Gennai and he was talking to them from the continent of Server. Tai though back to his time as king and knew that Server was one of the larger continents in the digital world. It was also where the kingdom of virtue was. Going there increased the chances of somebody recognizing him. He was a bit surprised Leomon hadn’t, but then again he didn’t see Leomon much as his priority was keeping File Island safe and Tai remained on Server for the most part.  
Thinking hard Tai realized that Gennai must be one of the researchers. Tai had not met all of them as they worked under Izzy who brought anything of importance to Tai. Gennai spoke about new enemies at Server and mentioned they needed to grow stronger and for that they needed the tags and crests. Looking at the image Gennai showed Tai recognized the crest of courage. With that he knew the people who created the bond between them and their digimon must have created the crests as well based on their connection.  
Gennai was able to mention that Devimon hid the tags before his connection was disrupted and he vanished. Izzy pulled out his laptop and found the map. Soon they were gathering food to eat and TK was rubbing his digi-egg gently waiting for it to hatch. They discussed how they were going to get to Server and Izzy mentioned that it was some distance away from File Island. Joe worried about leaving the island as they already knew where everything there was so they wouldn’t have to worry about food or places to sleep. Sora was worried facing enemies that might be stronger than Devimon.  
Izzy pointed out that even if they wanted to go they had no transportation. Surprisingly the one who stood with Tai in agreeing to go was TK. Tai was surprised because of all the people here TK was the only one who shouldn’t remember Server at all. He had only been a baby when they had to leave. Nevertheless his reaction spurred the rest of them on and they all agreed they would go. Tai was relieved. He hoped that perhaps seeing places that were familiar might spark their memories. He thought he’d read something like that at least.  
The next morning they started working on a raft, but progress was slow until Leomon arrived with Elecmon, Centaurumon also there was Monzaemon, Frigimon, Meramon, the Yokomon, and Mojyamon to help. With everyone working together soon they had a decent raft with supplied that should last them until they reached Server. As they prepared to set out TK happily noticed that his egg was hatching. It soon opened to reveal Poyomon. It seemed like a good sign and they all smiled as they set out saying goodbye to the friends they had made.  
They hadn’t been traveling for long when a wave almost knocked them over. It was caused by Whamon who then swallowed them. Inside his stomach they found a black gear which Tai destroyed. Then Whamon expelled them from his body unfortunately this destroyed their raft. To make up for this Whamon said he would take them to Server which for him would only be a four day trip. Tai asked him if he knew where Devimon hid the tags or crests.   
Whamon mentioned that Devimon did hide something at the bottom of the ocean, but he didn’t know what it was. He agreed to take them there. It was in an underground cave and they soon found a convenience store guarded by a Drimogemon who had a black gear in his back. Tai hoped this was the last one. It was quickly destroyed by Ikkakumon and Kabuterimon.   
Inside the store Poyomon found the box that had the tags in it. Now they just needed the crests. The days passed quickly as they journeyed towards Sever and after five days of travel Tai spotted land. He quickly began to wake the others in his excitement. Everyone woke up pretty quickly besides Mimi. She seemed to be having a good dream. When they arrived on land Mimi asked where they were going first.  
“Whamon told us the Koromon village is nearby. They’re very helpful digimon and quite brave.”  
The other digimon nodded in agreement and they all set out to find the nearby village. It didn’t take them long to find a village, but instead of Koromon there were Pagumon. Tai felt uneasy. Agumon said he smelled Koromon and Tai believed him plus he knew Pagumon. They weren’t truly evil, but they were natural pranksters. A few of them carried Mimi off and they chased after only to find Mimi taking a bath. Tai flushed deeply and did Izzy who had stopped right behind him. They quickly left and soon they were all sitting down for food.   
The food got Poyomon to digivolve into Tokomon. Tai was still uneasy about staying, but they needed the rest and he knew it was unlikely he’d be able to convince anyone besides Agumon that something was up. When they awoke they found out that Tokomon was missing. Everyone was on edge as they searched. Izzy made a map of the village and the nearby areas after they searched everywhere in the village with no luck. The Pagumon said he wasn’t by the waterfall, but Tai was still uncertain about trusting them. However there were a lot of them and it would be unwise to provoke them without an escape route.   
To make sure he sent Agumon to the surrounding area and told him to try and find Tokomon’s scent. He made sure the Pagumon didn’t hear this and distracted them from Agumon’s leaving as well as he could. When Agumon had been gone for a long time with no word Tai began to worry. What if whatever got to Tokomon got him to? Then he saw something with his mini-telescope. There was smoke coming from the area around the river. Tai decided to go check it out, but the Pagumon tried to stop him which increased his suspicions.  
Before he could push past them he heard Mimi scream and saw a Botamon on her lap. There was the proof he needed. This was the Koromon village. Tai was upset, but before he could do anything the Pagumon fled. Tai ran as fast as he could to the waterfall now sure it was where Agumon and Tokomon were. When he arrived he saw Agumon being hurt. With Tai being there Agumon was able to digivolve and defeat the Ginzemon.   
TK released Tokomon and was relieved that he was uninjured. They were getting ready to leave when Etemon showed up and started to destroy the Koromon village. The other tried to digivolve, but Etemon used his dark network to force them back into their rookie forms. They had no choice, but to run further into the cave. The Koromon led the back to a room where they head when anything bad happened to their village.   
Then Tai’s tag began to glow along with the room they were in. The back wall soon shrunk down into the crest of courage which linking up to the tag. Without the tag there they could leave out the back where Etemon couldn’t see them. Also it seemed they were a long way from the village so the crest must have transported them some distance away.  
Tai was relieved that everyone was safe, but at the same time he hated running away. He held the tag and crest in his hand and then felt a bit of shock. The crest held his energy in it. Not his energy as it was now disguised as human, but his energy as King Taichi. That’s how it would enable Agumon to digivolve further. It was giving him an extra boost of energy. A boost Tai would soon be able to sustain without the crest. He was recovering a lot faster now that he was in the digital world. The only reason he wasn’t already back in shape was the fact that he and Agumon were sharing energy.   
Every time Agumon digivolved it took a lot of energy. It didn’t set him back by much though unless Agumon got hurt. He had a bad feeling though that Etemon was going to hit harder now that they had escaped from him once. With nothing else to do they began walking. They were walking through the desert and Tai saw how down the others were and knew they were worried about facing Etemon. He wanted to reassure them, but didn’t know how. Digivolving was a hard process and if it was forced could end very badly.  
‘Well if worst comes to worse I should be able to summon my fire blade now.’  
Tai could feel the level of energy in his system and knew he would be able to do that much. How long he could keep it out was the only thing in question. There was also the question of what he would do if the others saw him. They would ask questions he wasn’t sure he could answer. As subtly as he could he boosted the energy in the crest. It was constantly replenishing, but this gave him a place to store extra energy just in case.  
In an effort to make sure he wasn’t caught off guard Tai tuned his senses to see if he could feel Etemon. Soon they stopped to have some food and the others brought up feeding Agumon more food than usual since Tai was the only one with a crest.  
“No overeating would be just as bad as not eating enough. Haven’t you ever felt sluggish after eating too much?”  
“Tai has a point, but we should let Agumon eat first at least so we can make sure he gets enough.”  
This everyone agreed on and they started to eat. Before they finished Joe’s tag began to glow and they followed it to what appeared to be an arena like the roman coliseum. Tai tensed as he could feel some of Etemon’s energy, but it was faint not enough to suggest he was here. The only thing Tai could come up with was a signal. Either way he kept his guard up. He didn’t want to think about what Etemon could do to them if they were unprepared.  
As Joe began looking around Sora noticed a soccer ball roll onto the field. The digimon were confused so Sora began to explain the concept of soccer to them and suggested they all play a game. Tai was about to opt out in order to conserve energy when they heard Etemon. Everyone got stuck under the goalie cage except for Tai and Agumon. Then Etemon sent another Greymon after them. Agumon digivolved, but it wasn’t enough. No-one had the upper hand and none of the others could digivolve while under the electric cage. They started shifting the stones in the goalie net to try and get out when they saw a crest under them.   
Tai wanted to help Greymon, but it would be disastrous if Etemon found out about him before he could fight back.  
“Gomamon can you use you’re marching fishes to destroy the monitors?”  
“I can try, Marching Fishes!”  
When the monitors were destroyed Tai started concentrating his energy into his right hand. He noticed Joe and the others had escaped, but it was too late to stop now. At least Tai could be sure Etemon couldn’t see him.  
“Fire blade!”  
In his right hand a sword began to form. He aimed it carefully at the collar the other Greymon was wearing.  
“Blazing spiral!”  
A spiral of fire shattered the collar and the Greymon turned and ran. They won, but Tai knew questions were coming. He rushed over to Greymon who shifted all the way back to Koromon due to the harsh battle.  
“Are you ok Koromon?”  
“I’m fine, but Tai how did you do that?”  
“I’ll explain later right now I think we all need to rest.”  
He turned to the others his eyes stern and they nodded. Unfortunately they couldn’t stay in the arena and everywhere around was desert. In the end they decided to continue traveling in the direction they had been headed before getting sidetracked by locating one of the crests.


	8. Confessions and Realizations

After traveling for a while they came across another projection of Gennai. What he said got everyone worried about if they were taking care of their digimon well enough. He also mentioned they needed to be in harmony with their crests in order for them to work. If they tried to force it corruption would occur. They were startled from their thoughts by what appeared to be a large cruise ship being driven by a Numemon. With help from Mimi they charmed their way on board and Tai was reminded why she was head of negotiations.  
Once on board they all split up. Mimi and Sora went to take a shower, Matt, Izzy and TK went to eat, and Joe and Tai were at the pool. Tai was still thinking about Gennai’s comment that he wasn’t taking good care of his digimon. He just didn’t understand. He asked Joe about it, but Joe seemed just as confused. Tai looked over at Koromon who seemed to be resting well.  
“Tai are you going to tell us what happened earlier?”  
“I will, but not right now. When we are all together and can be sure we’re not being overheard. It could be dangerous information in the wrong hands.”  
Before they could continue speaking the heard a tearing sound which turned out to be Kokatorimon. He ordered the Numemon to capture them in nets. Luckily this caused Koromon to digivolve into Agumon. Tai was please he had recovered enough, but was worried about his abilities to fight. Then Tai was shocked when Kokatorimon turned Agumon and Gomamon to stone. Then he grabbed their crests.  
“Tai that thing you did earlier?”  
“I can’t I don’t have enough energy right now.”  
“Anything I can do?”  
Tai made sure no one else could hear them as he said,  
“I stored some of my energy in my crest if I could just touch it then maybe, but until then we’re stuck. We just have to hope it doesn’t happen to the others.”  
Soon they were strung up with everyone besides Sora and Mimi. This gave Tai hope of escape, but it also worried him. He would be fine with the heat given his fire base, but both Matt and Joe were water based the heat would get to them first. Then probably TK who was wind based. Izzy was lightning based so he too could handle the heat, but Tai still worried. Matt and Joe were already looking flushed.  
‘Please let us get out of this in time.’  
Luckily he heard the cry of Birdramon and soon after the digimon returned to normal and Tai breathed a sigh of relief. Soon they all got down and left the ship. Before they could get away Kokatorimon started chasing them with his ship. They managed to get away by taking shelter behind a giant cactus which the ship crashed into. When the ship was flung away a flower bloomed on top of the cactus revealing the crest of sincerity.  
They continued walking through the desert when the others began talking about the crests. Tai continued walking and was soon a small distance away when Kuwagamon attacked. The others urged Agumon to digivolve, but he was scared. Tai told him about corruption when they had a moment and that forcing a digimon to digivolve causes them to turn into dark beings. For Agumon that meant Skull-Greymon. A Digimon that attacks everything around it without care, lost in his fear Agumon didn’t notice Kuwagamon getting closer until Tai tackled him to the ground to protect him.   
Agumon felt like a failure. It seemed these days that he couldn’t protect Tai like he should be able to. They still hadn’t gotten an explanation, but it didn’t matter to Agumon. Tai was his partner no matter what. As they were about to be attacked again a bomb came out of nowhere destroying the Kuwagamon. Tai looked up and to his surprise he saw Piximon. Piximon had been his trainer when he was just a little Mon, telling him about what it meant to have courage and be a true leader.   
Piximon looked at him and Tai could see the recognition, but he shook his head subtly and Piximon made no mention of it. Instead he talked about how they were the digi-destined and should be better fighters by now. Then he turned to their digimon and mentioned how they were supposed to be protecting the children, but half the time it was the other way around. Agumon looked down in despair. Piximon hit just where his thoughts had been going earlier. Then Piximon smiled and said all was not lost because he was going to train them. He mentioned he had a special plan in mind for the training of Tai and Agumon.  
Tai tensed at the thought of training with Piximon again. You couldn’t deny the results, but the training could be described as torture. The others conferred together and agreed to go with Piximon. He showed them to his training grounds which were hidden in the middle of the desert. You could walk right by and never know it was there. Then they arrived and had to go through the first part of training which was reaching the house. There were a lot of steps and no one was allowed to fly. By the time they reached the top everyone was sweating and a bit tired. Tai was in the best shape due to his own training, but he was still exhausted. Then Piximon said they had to clean the floors to earn their supper. Then Piximon separated Tai from the rest of the group for his own training.  
“Take off your shackles. You are safe here.”  
“Are you sure?”  
Piximon looked him dead in the eye.  
“You know I would never risk your life King Taichi.”  
“Kind Taichi!” Agumon shouted.  
“You’ve heard the name before Agumon?”  
“Only in whispers I thought it was a myth”  
“Not a myth as you’re about to see.”  
For the first time since he entered the human world about 8 years ago Tai started to remove his metaphorical shackles. All the things that kept his energy from being discovered and kept him aging at a human pace were removed until he stood before Piximon looking like he was in his early twenties. Not quite back to normal, but close.  
“So you’re really king Taichi?”  
“Yes I really am. Why don’t you tell me what you heard and I’ll fill in the gaps.”  
“Well in legend it tells of a paradise called the kingdom of virtue ruled by King Taichi and his Husband Lord Yamato. It is said they lived in peace for many years. There are even rumors that they had a child together although those were never confirmed or not. It is said most of the people in the castle died in an attack because they didn’t show up in primary village.”  
“Well the rumors are true Matt and I do have a child.”  
“You and Matt? So he’s Lord Yamato?” Agumon  
“Yup they are all members of my kingdom and my close friends. They don’t remember any of it though for some reason.”  
“I wondered why they didn’t seem to recognize me.” Piximon  
They continued to talk about what had happened and came to the conclusion that something must have thrown off the balance between the digital world and the human world for time to pass so much more quickly in the digital world. While for Tai it had only been 8 years for Piximon it had been thousands.  
“Well that’s enough discussion for now we need to get to your training.”  
Tai nodded in resignation. Tai worked through a harsh routine with Piximon and Agumon. When he was finally satisfied and began to put locks back on.  
“Why are you replacing your shackles?”  
“I need to check on the others and they’re not ready to see me like that yet. I have to tell them the truth about who I am first.”  
“Before you leave there is one more thing. The cave.”  
“Haven’t I already done that?”  
“Yes, but you have lost your center and need to find it again this time with Agumon.”  
Tai agreed and they headed off. It had been so long since he did this he almost forgot what it was like. This place made you face your inner self and all the fears you held. It was a good place for him to train because his center was courage. He remembered when he was human and learning to ride a bike and back when he was still Prince Taichi and trying to summon his fire blade. Every time he seemed to have a grasp on it, it slipped away. King Taichi wrapped one of his hands around the hand of his younger self and a sword was summoned.  
“I’ve been so afraid of losing what I had I’ve been holding myself back.”  
“And I’ve been so afraid of hurting others I stopped myself from digivolving, but now we’re moving forward.”  
“Together.”  
When they arrived they saw the others were in danger and Agumon quickly digivolved to save them from Tyrannomon. When the barrier was repaired and they returned to the house Tai turned to the others.  
“It is time I told you about what happened at the arena.”  
“Yeah where did that sword come from? How did you use it?” Sora  
“I summoned the sword and I was able to use it because it is mine. I am Taichi of the kingdom of Virtue.”  
The digimon all recognized the name.  
“So you’re a digimon?” Matt  
“We all are.” Tai  
“WHAT!?”  
“All of us here are digimon.” Tai  
“I think I would know wouldn’t I?” Matt  
“You should, but you don’t remember. Think back, does anyone here besides TK remember a time before you were 5 years old?” Tai  
The others all shook their heads.  
“What about TK?” Matt  
“He was only 2 months old when we were attacked. Each of us reverted back to a younger age due to injury and exhaustion. I sent us to the human world to recover because I worried about what would happen if we reformed in Primary Village. Whatever organized the attack was still out there.”  
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Joe  
“What was I supposed to say? That I’m the king of a kingdom that no longer exists? Would any of you have believed me?”  
Tai could see from their faces that he was right.  
“Piximon here was my old trainer a long time ago. Something happened that threw the digital world out of balance with the human world. For us it has only been 8 years, but here it was a lot longer.”  
“Will we remember?” Izzy  
“I hope so we were all really close.”  
“Tai I have a question if it isn’t too personal.” Sora  
“Sure ask if I don’t want to answer I won’t”  
“You were an adult before all this happened right?”  
“Yes, but I don’t think that’s your only question.”  
“Were you married?”  
“Yes.”  
“What happened to your wife was she killed in the attack? Is it one of us?”  
“Sora I don’t want to risk creating false memories by telling you too much about what life was like, but my husband was not killed in the attack.”  
“Husband?” Sora  
“Yeah gender differences don’t mean as much in the digital world and some digimon don’t have a gender at all.”  
“Wait does this mean that Matt isn’t really my brother?” TK  
“TK you were raised with Matt. He is as much your brother as he would be if you had been blood related. Don’t dismiss the connection you two have. Do you understand?”  
“Yeah I think so thanks Tai.”  
“No problem kiddo. Beside you would have been raised with Matt anyway if that attack hadn’t happened. We all made plans to raise the two of you together.”  
As soon as he said it Tai knew he said more than he wanted to in his attempt to reassure TK. Sure enough Sora caught on to what he unintentionally said.  
“Wait does that mean there’s more of us? There are more people who are actually digimon?”  
Before Tai could say anything Palmon looked at him in realization,  
“Wait there was a rumor that you and lord-“she paused briefly at his look, “That you had a child.”  
Tai could feel everyone staring at him in shock,  
“Yes I have a child and that is all I’m saying on it right now. If you think you remember something and want to confirm it with me ask then, but for now please I don’t want to talk about it.”  
“What if we never remember?” Matt  
Tai wasn’t sure what look crossed his face before he could mask it, but judging from the way Sora was staring at him it was probably close to heartbreak. He firmed up his resolve.  
“It’s better to create new memories than to create false ones. Now everyone should get some rest we’ll be leaving soon.”  
It didn’t take long after they left for them to find one of Etemon’s access terminals. Using it Izzy was able to hack into Etemon’s network. While he was on he received a message that turned out to be an SOS. They were wary of the message, but the thought of gaining another crest was too good of an opportunity to pass up. As they were walking towards the location the SOS came from TK’s tag began to glow and they found his crest. Now the only one left was Sora’s and if the message was to be believed they were close. They entered the tunnel behind the crest and found more of the writing Izzy had noticed before. Izzy figured out that it was computer code and managed to light the tunnel and pull up a map before looking at Tai.  
“Did you know about this?”  
“Izzy I was never a tech expert. I can no more understand the code here than I could the computer code back on earth.”  
“Sorry Tai it’s just…”  
“No worries Izzy I understand.”  
“It seems that everything here is data and coding even us.” Izzy  
“Wait, but if we’re from here how could we have a form on earth?” Matt  
“That I can answer; see as Izzy said earlier data here is alive. It creates a body just as easily as molecules do on earth. However traveling to earth does have a cost. It takes a lot more energy so some digimon will revert back to their in-training stage. If a human were to come here their body would transform into data and reform into flesh when they left, although anything that happens to them here will still affect them if when the leave. Like if they got a cut that cut would still be there. I’m not sure of the exact mechanics behind it, but that’s why it took me so long to recover. Haven’t you noticed that since you’ve been here you feel more energized and able to do things you wouldn’t have been capable of before?”  
The looks on their faces told Tai he was right. Izzy then brought attention back to himself by using the data he gathered to form a map of the Digital World. Using the message he got earlier he was able to pinpoint the location of the sender. He showed how the digital world was part of earth and connected through the digital network. Using the way this linked up Izzy was able to transport them to where the signal was coming from. As they left the cave they saw an upside-down pyramid and Etemon’s coach.  
They decided to wait until tomorrow to investigate and set up a watch system. Sora spoke with Tai about feeling small and wondering if anything they did mattered.  
“Of course it matters. We can’t take the chance that it doesn’t. Besides like I said anything that happens to us here happens to us. Whether we’re digimon or human doesn’t change that.”  
The next day they set out to find the messenger. Tai directed Matt, Mimi and TK to stay at the sphinx. While the rest of them headed stealthily over to the pyramid. Izzy found a secret entrance that looked like a solid wall, but was really an illusion and they entered quickly. Izzy used his computer to navigate through the tunnels and soon they found themselves in front of an electrified fence. Izzy found the spot they had to use to travel through safely. When they got to the other side they found themselves in the center of the pyramid and looking at a Datamon who seemed to be trapped.  
They went through the steps to free him, but before they could do the last one Etemon appeared. Their digimon digivolved, but it wasn’t enough to fight Etemon. Tai freed Datamon, but he turned against them and trapped Birdramon causing her to revert to Biyomon. Etemon and Datamon fought and when Datamon lost he kidnapped Sora and Biyomon.  
By the time Izzy found the weak point in the firewall Etemon burst through having defeated their digimon luckily at that moment, Matt and Mimi appeared. They held Etemon off long enough for them to get through the firewall and escape, but they couldn’t find Sora in time. They needed to regroup, but Tai was beating himself up over losing Sora.  
“Tai it’s not your fault.”  
“If I just had enough energy to digivolve this wouldn’t have happened.”  
“You can do that?”  
“Not right now I can’t I’d get the same results as Agumon trying to digivolve when he’s hungry.”  
“What happens when you digivolve, do you get older?” Matt  
“No as best I can explain it we’re a different type of digimon. Being human is the equivalent of the earlier stages. Infants and toddlers are the fresh stage, kids are the in training stage, and adults are the rookie stage like Agumon. Anything after that and there’s a bigger change and we look more like other digimon.”  
Soon after the explanation Izzy came over with good news  
“I’ve discovered there’s a secret room under the pyramid and I bet that’s where he’s hiding.”  
They all prepared to retrieve Sora as quickly as possible. Tentomon went to fly over the pyramid to get the location of the guards. Izzy came to the conclusion that they couldn’t get in without someone seeing them, so some of them had to act as decoys to draw some of the guards away giving Tai and Agumon enough time to get inside. Izzy gave him instruction and made sure he knew there was another electrified fence inside. The plan started with Ikkakumon bombing the pyramid to get their attention. Then Garurumon came from behind with Matt to scatter them.   
While the Guards were distracted Tai, Agumon, Izzy and Tentomon slipped into the pyramid. As they were making their way to Sora, Mimi went to Help Matt and Joe fight Etemon. When they were about to be defeated Etemon was told the others were in the pyramid and they used his distraction to escape and hide. Izzy and Tai were close to the room, but they had been discovered and were trying to find a way to get to it without getting caught. Things took a turn for the worse when Etemon burst in on them. Izzy turned to Tai and told him to find Sora, Tentomon digivolved into Kabuterimon to buy them time.   
They got to the entrance all they needed to do now was get through the electrical fence. Tai was worried about not getting the right spot, but he pressed forward anyway. As he touched the fence his crest began to glow. Then Etemon and Kabuterimon rolled down the stairs Agumon digivolved to Greymon to help while Tai went to get Sora. He found her strapped to this table while Datamon was trying to give her digivice and crest to a copy. Tai moved swiftly to grab them when a hole opened up where Sora was. He grabbed her hand and looked into the hole. Data going into it was being deleted and he held tight to Sora to make sure it wouldn’t happen to her.   
Datamon tried to pull Sora away and drop her into the core of Etemon’s dark network but Tai had her catch her Crest and digivice which enabled Biyomon to digivolve. Birdramon was able to lift Sora and Tai away from the hole with ease. They were able to crush the electric fence onto Etemon and escape. As they were leaving the pyramid was destroyed by the virus mutating Etemon’s dark network. He emerged from the collapsed pyramid covered in wires. His dark network started deleting the nearby area. The others were talking about it being the end, but Tai looked at his crest which was glowing with his courage and he knew he could fight back.  
He ran towards Etemon with Greymon at his side and both his crest and digivice were glowing orange with power. Greymon was ready to digivolve. Armor plating formed on his arm and chest and metal wings came out of his back. He was now Metal-Greymon. He ran towards Etemon easily batting away his attacks. Then he shot a gigablaster right into the network and destroyed it. Unfortunately this created a warp which Tai and Greymon were sucked into. When Tai opened his eyes again he was back on earth with Koromon.


	9. Return and Renewed Hope

Tai was grateful he had enough money with them to take the subway back to the apartment. He had no idea how much time had passed on earth. He’d been here for 8 years, but it was so much longer in the digital world. Well in the end the only way to find out was to go inside so he did. When he got inside he saw from the calendar on the fridge that it was the same day he had left. He was about to make some food when he heard a small noise from the room and saw Kari come out in her pajamas. Tai was surprised she recognized Koromon even if she didn’t realize from where. She had been sick when the Koromon Tai brought through was there and quite young.  
“Hey Tai is she?”  
“Yes Koromon she’s mine, but she believes I’m her brother. I meant to tell her this summer while at camp, but she ended up getting sick. She seems to be doing better though.”  
Tai made sure Kari was comfortable before he set about making them all some food. He was glad he remembered what Matt showed him about cooking eggs. It was nice not having to worry about finding food, but Tai knew he wouldn’t be able to rest until he was sure the others were alright. Then the computer turned itself on and Tai saw Izzy. Tai knew something was wrong when he saw Izzy. There was no glint of curiosity or a desire for knowledge in his eyes, and that combined with the message had Tai worried and he knew he had to get back as soon as possible.  
The only problem was he didn’t have enough energy to open a portal from here. If he was in the digital world it would be enough, but it took more power to create one on earth where digital power wasn’t as prevalent. Tai went to his room to rest and was woken by a phone call. It was their parents. Tai knew from that call that the troubles of the digital world were slipping into earth through the connection they had. In order to save one world they had to save both. When he was despairing over his inability to do anything, an earthquake hit. It had been caused by a Tyrannomon. Tai quickly got ready to leave even if he couldn’t do much he couldn’t stand by and do nothing.  
“Kari it isn’t safe outside so I want you to stay here and wait until it’s safe. I love you baby girl.”  
“I love you too Tai.”  
Tai gave Kari a quick hug and left with Koromon. He knew if digimon were transporting here there had to be a rift and maybe he could use it to get back. As he was looking around he noticed Kari had followed him. He was upset she followed him, but was pleased she at least stopped to put on a jacket and some sandals. Ogremon was there and they hoped he would vanish like the other digimon did, but instead he attacked them. When the digivice reacted to help Koromon digivolve it opened the rift further and with a pepper breath from Agumon Ogremon was pulled back to the digital world with Agumon following soon after.  
Tai knew he had to make a choice quickly before the rift closed so he turned to Kari and said,  
“I need to go and you can’t come with me right now. It’s not safe and you don’t have a digimon to protect you. I promise though I will come back and I will see you again as soon as I can. When that time comes I have a lot to tell you, but please wait until then.”  
“Ok Tai, please come back soon.”  
“I will, be sure to wait at home for mom and dad ok.”  
“Alright Tai.”  
Tai kissed Kari gently on the forehead and used the digivice to pull himself through the portal. Kari held his hand as long as she could before letting go. It broke Tai’s heart to leave her again, but he didn’t want to risk it. Hikari was still so full of the power of light. He knew in his heart she would probably join the fight as well, but he hoped to keep her from it as long as possible. There was a lot of evil in the world and if he had his way none of it would ever touch her. Either way, he was now back in the digital world. The first thing he had to do was find the others.  
From his digivice he could see at least one of the others was nearby so he set off as fast as he could without running out of energy fast. When he arrived at where the signal was coming from he saw Tokomon the digivice and crest, but there was no TK. Tai quickly woke Tokomon to see what happened and found out that he had been gone for weeks. He felt bad for what everyone went through but especially for TK. He was so young and according to Tokomon he argued with TK about this digimon called demi-Devimon. Tai didn’t like how it sounded. It seemed like TK had fallen into despair and given that fact that his was the crest of hope that could be very bad for him.  
First thing they had to do was find TK. Tokomon would lead the way because of the bond they shared. It didn’t take them long to find TK and he was happy to see them. He still wanted Tokomon to apologize, but Tai stopped them from arguing with the fact that they had bigger things to worry about. TK seemed convinced the others hated him and didn’t want to search from them. Tai tried calming him down by assuring him that Matt loved him very much, but it didn’t seem to help. Tai agreed to step up as a big bother to TK until they found Matt and that seemed to calm him down.  
‘Poor kid he’s probably never been on his own before.’  
Before they could do anything Demi-Devimon showed up with a basket of mushrooms. The mushrooms sparked something in Tai’s mind, but he couldn’t figure out what. He demanded Demi-Devimon take them to Matt, but he wanted to eat first and Tai was hungry. He decided to roast the mushrooms as he didn’t like them raw and before they finished Agumon had to use the restroom. He handed one of the mushrooms to TK, but then noticed it wasn’t fully cooked. Before they could eat one, Tai heard Agumon cry for them not to eat the mushrooms.   
Agumon pointed out the Demi-Devimon wasn’t eating them and was trying to make them forget. That sparked the memory in Tai’s mind of something Ken had told him about what plants to watch out for. The forgetfulness mushroom made you forget everything even your own name, but the worst part was you didn’t even realize there was something to forget. If given enough time without eating them the memories would return, but few were able to do this and remained stuck in a pattern of eating and forgetting.  
With the realization that Demi-Devimon was lying TK’s hope was restored and his crest began to glow, Tokomon digivolved into Patamon and chased Demi-Devimon away. They were now prepared to start finding the others. Tai talked to TK and made sure he knew how important he was. It was important they all faced the coming darkness together. They continued walking and before long Tai’s digivice started to beep signaling that they were near one or more of the others. TK was excited and hoped it was Matt  
When they arrived at a restaurant they found Gomamon and Gabumon cleaning. When they went to the back to talk to Joe he talked about what happened and how he and Matt were fighting now. Tai wondered what happened to Matt to make him mistrust Joe. He went out back after TK and saw Matt light up seeing that TK was safe. Tai felt uneasy about the area they were in and suggested they run away, but Matt refused. Before Tai could convince him Digitamamon showed up with Demi-Devimon. Matt realized that he’d been lied to and that Demi-Devimon was the one causing the disasters. Tai and TK chased after Demi-Devimon determined to roast him, but TK ended up getting caught by Vegiemon. Garurumon wasn’t strong enough to break Digitamamon’s shell.  
Gomamon digivolved into Ikkakumon to help and Joe tried to free TK but ended up getting caught himself. Matt was touched by the act of friendship even though he’d been so rude to Joe. And then Joe said to attack while he was keeping them busy. Matt thought about all of his friends and how much stronger they were together and his crest began to glow dark blue along with his digivice and Garurumon digivolved into Were-Garurumon. He punched away Digitamamon’s nightmare attack like it was barely there and sent him flying.   
It only took a threat of being turned into salad to get Vegiemon to let Joe go and run away. Tai was pleased to see Matt’s restored faith in friendship. It was time to continue looking for the others. When were-Garurumon reverted he went back to being Tsunomon due to the amount of energy he used, but it shouldn’t take too long for him to digivolve again. When their digivices went off again there were two separate dots and both Matt and Tai knew this meant they had to separate again.  
“We’ll meet up at the foot of that mountain just to be sure.”  
Matt nodded and he went one way with TK while Tai went the other way with Joe. Hopefully it wouldn’t be long before they were reunited again. Tai and Joe took the swan boat. It was slow going as Gomamon and Agumon were too short to reach the pedals. When they were closer to the signal they saw a huge palace. When they looked inside they saw Gekomon and Otamamon running around frantically talking about a princess.  
When they tried to ask if they saw anyone the digimon just argued over what it was the princess wanted. Then the princess was announced and to their surprise it was Mimi. It shocked Tai to see her acting so spoiled. She had always been so generous and kind. He wondered what her life must have been like as a human to change that. They were glad to see she was alright, but she didn’t want to leave with them. She shouted at them that they could leave anytime, but she was staying. Palmon tried to get her to stop shouting at them and brought up that they were friends, but it didn’t work.  
When Tai sat down with the intent of not moving until she agreed to leave with them Mimi had them thrown out. Tai wondered what Mimi did to get them to wait on her like that and some of the Gekomon and Otamamon decided to show them. They brought them to their sleeping master and told them about how he had been sleeping for 300 years because someone sang better than he did. They believed that only a voice as beautiful as the one that beat him could get him to wake up.  
They spoke about Mimi forgetting the words then she demanded more and more for her singing. She always came up with an excuse not to sing. Then Joe came up with the idea that they could try. First he sang then Gomamon and Agumon then they turned to him.  
“No, no I don’t sing. There is only one person I sing for and he most definitely is not here. Besides I doubt my voice will work anyway.”  
The others were about to argue with Tai when Palmon showed up and they came up with a plan to try and get Mimi to sing. They brought a karaoke machine to her room and Palmon gave her a mike. Unfortunately she caught them and had them thrown in jail even Palmon. Palmon seemed like she was about to cry when she called Mimi a spoiled brat. Then Mimi stormed off in a huff. Tai was worried about what would happen if they couldn’t get Mimi to leave with them. Luckily for them Sora was watching and she helped Mimi realize what her dream meant and what she had to do.  
Mimi’s crest began to glow; she changed back into her normal outfit and prepared to sing. She had the Gekomon get her friends out of the jail so they could listen to her apologies. She began to sing and her voice woke Shogun-Gekomon. Unfortunately he was not as appreciative as they had hoped. He started to destroy the area around him because he got woken up. A piece of debris was about to hit Mimi but Palmon digivolved into Togemon to stop it. When Shogun-Gekomon tried to attack Mimi, Ikkakumon and Greymon stopped it, but their attacks weren’t powerful enough.  
Greymon digivolve into Metal-Greymon and shot a giga-blaster into shogun-Gekomon‘s trumpets to prevent him from attacking them with sound. The explosion caused the building to collapse and now they were ready to go. Soon they would all be reunited.  
“Hey Tai you’re the only one of us who hasn’t sung yet.” Joe  
“Yeah and I don’t intend to.”  
“Come on Tai it can’t be any worse than our attempts.” Gomamon  
“That’s not it Gomamon. It’s just singing is very personal to me. Anytime I sing it has a meaning.”  
“Well we’re your friends aren’t we? You can share it with us.” Mimi  
Tai sighed he got the feeling they wouldn’t let up and it would be better to sing now than for them to persist all the way to the mountain and get Matt and the others to join them in asking. Tai had never been able to deny his friends much unless it was something big or unreasonable.  
“Fine.”  
“Great! Do you need any music?” Mimi  
“No it’s fine, but you have to promise not to tell the others.”  
They nodded and Tai began to sing,

 

“Heart beats fast colors and promises  
How to be brave how can I love when I’m afraid to fall  
But watching you stand alone all of my doubt   
Suddenly goes away somehow   
One step closer  
I have died every day waiting for you  
Darkling don’t be afraid I have loved you  
For a thousand years  
I’ll love you for a thousand more  
Time stands still beauty in all he is  
I will be brave I will not let anything take away  
What’s standing in front of me  
Every breath every hour has come to this  
One step closer  
I have died every day waiting for you  
Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you  
For a thousand years   
I’ll love you for a thousand more  
All along I believed I would find you  
Time has brought your heart to me I have loved you   
For a thousand years I’ll love you for a thousand more  
*interlude humming*  
One step closer  
One Step closer  
I have died every day waiting for you  
Darling don’t be afraid I have loved you for a thousand years  
I’ll love you for a thousand more.”

 

He looked up as his voice trailed off and saw Mimi and Palmon looking like they wanted to cry.  
“Tai that was beautiful.” Palmon  
“Thanks.”  
“Did you write that? I’ve never heard it before.” Joe  
“Well I wrote part of the chorus but not all of it.”  
“That’s amazing. I didn’t know you wrote music.” Agumon  
“Well I don’t often, but that was for a special occasion.”  
“Really? What occasion?” Gomamon  
“You know we’re behind schedule we really should be heading to the mountain.”  
The others saw this as the evasion it was but let the subject drop they had time later. Right now the priority was to reunite with the others.


	10. Truths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> where we learn about attributes

Using the swan boat they quickly made their way to the place where they intended to meet. Tai was looking forward to the reunion. It wasn’t long after they got to shore that Matt, TK and Izzy showed up. Now the only person they needed to find was Sora. Both Mimi and Koromon mentioned they heard her, but neither was sure. Either way they set out to find her as soon as possible. While they were looking they got attacked by Flymon and Birdramon saved them which meant Sora was nearby. They chased after Birdramon and managed to catch up to Sora who had been running away.  
They demanded an explanation, but Sora just looked sad. When TK asked if she didn’t like them anymore she told them that that wasn’t it and Biyomon showed up and suggested she tell them what happened. So Sora started to explain what happened right after she left to find Tai. She had come across Demi-Devimon talking to a portal, but she couldn’t see who it was. They were talking about how each of the crests had its own meaning. Tai nodded already knowing this. She then mentioned what each of their crests meant.  
“Yes and yours is the crest of love. I don’t see the problem it’s perfect for you.” Tai  
“No it’s not! Maybe it was when I had my memories, but not anymore.”  
“But you’re always thinking of everyone else.” Tai  
“You don’t know the first thing about me Tai!”  
His eyes widened with hurt and Sora apologized,  
“I’m sorry Tai it’s just my crest it won’t glow. Maybe if I had my memories back it would work, but for now it won’t.”   
Then she told them about how Demi-Devimon said she’d never be able to get her crest to glow. Tai didn’t see how that was a problem because demi-Devimon was a liar. Then Sora talked about her human mother seeming to only care about the family business and how she never experienced love. She shouted and was about to throw her crest when Tai stopped her saying she shouldn’t believe Demi-Devimon because all he was doing was trying to hurt her. As he said this Sora began to cry and Tai worried that he pushed her too much.   
Then TK stepped up to thank her for warning them about the mushrooms. Biyomon then spoke about how Sora had been watching them for a while, but needed to be alone. TK nodded and asked Sora not to go away again because he didn’t like being away from her. She helped him not to miss his mom as much. Sora apologized for not being there and then Joe, Izzy and Mimi finally caught up. They were all together again. They had just settled down to rest for the night when Demi-Devimon shot a dart at Biyomon.   
Her shouting woke the others in time to see a digimon drop down from a carriage. It was Myotismon and he attacked them. The digimon started to digivolve to protect them and took out the bats. Ikkakumon tried directly attacking Myotismon, but it didn’t even cause a scratch and he started attacking them with his crimson lightning. Biyomon wanted to help fight, but Sora didn’t want her fighting in her condition. Biyomon asked why she couldn’t understand and this caused Sora to see her mother’s actions in a different light.   
She hadn’t been trying to stop Sora from doing what she liked she was just worried about Sora getting hurt. Then Biyomon digivolved and joined the fight as Sora saw Birdramon get hurt she knew she felt love for her and her crest began to glow. Birdramon digivolved into Garudamon, she picked Sora up to protect her and shot a wing blade at Myotismon. As he was distracted by the attack Garudamon got the others away as fast as she could.  
“See Sora all you had to do was stop worrying about it. I told you your crest was perfect for you.” Tai  
Matt began playing his harmonica and they relaxed for a moment. They knew danger was coming, but for now they were safe. Joe and Tai were gathering some water from the river when Gennai showed up with a message. He said there was another digi-destined who would be joining them soon. Tai felt a twinge of panic. It could be one of the others, but Tai had a feeling that it was Kari. He didn’t want her exposed to such danger, but he knew he didn’t have a choice.   
The others started asking if Gennai had more information and he said the only information he had was that the child was in Japan. The bad news was that Myotismon also had this information and was going to Japan himself. Tai felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on him. They all decided that the only thing they could do was try to infiltrate Myotismon’s castle. Agumon and Palmon disguised themselves as new recruits. Gennai said there was a portal to the human world inside. Tai recognized the area, but there hadn’t been a castle there last time he’s seen it. It was a good place to set up a portal as the human world and the digital world were closely connected here.  
Finally Agumon and Palmon appeared at a window to get them in. Gennai mentioned he wouldn’t be able to contact them inside so they were on their own. Inside the castle was like a maze and they kept going around in circles. Then they spotted digimon who seemed to know where they were going and they decided to follow them. They arrived to see Myotismon about to head through the gate. As he left all the digimon digivolved except for Yokomon who was still recovering and Patamon. The digimon who had gathered ran away, but then another digimon started attacking them. It was Gatomon. Unfortunately she was too small and swift for them to land a hit.  
Tai was confused Gatomon had a tail ring on and that meant she was a holy beast like Patamon. Why on earth was she working for Myotismon? They started running to the gate while she fought their digimon, but she used her tail ring to awaken the Devi-dramon who were guarding it. They had to hurry the gate was closing. Greymon digivolved into Metal-Greymon and defeated the Devi-dramon before reverting back to Koromon. Unfortunately they weren’t fast enough and they finished in time to see Gatomon smirk as the gate closed with her on her way to Japan.   
They left the castle so they could speak to Gennai about how to get the gate to open again. He said a key was needed and they should come to his home. He sent a signal out so they could find it. The signal lead them to a lake and they wondered if they would need to swim down when the water split to reveal steps leading down to a house. Gennai brought them inside to speak to them about the human world and how they would need to return to it. Tai realized from his speech that he didn’t know that they weren’t originally from the human world.  
He showed them a map of the human world with a red circle that showed where Myotismon was. Everyone noted that it was in the area they all lived in. Then Gennai brought out 10 cards that were meant to unlock the gateway. The problem was there were only 9 slots so one of the cards was a fake and if they got the wrong card they could end up in another world by mistake. He said they could rest there tonight and he would show them how to use the cards tomorrow.  
As the others were sleeping Izzy went to talk to Gennai about the digital world. He asked what made Gennai different from the digimon and was told it was because he had no attributes. Izzy decided to speak to Tai about that as soon as he could. Izzy also brought up the fact that he couldn’t pull up information on the digimon the others have seen that he hasn’t. Gennai promised to work on it and sent him to bed. When they woke up the next morning food had been set out for them. When they finished eating Gennai showed up and pointed out the modifications he made to Izzy’s laptop. He wished them luck and reminded them that he wouldn’t be able to reach them once they got to the castle.  
When they arrived they saw the Devi-dramon patrolling the area. Izzy’s crest and digivice glowed a brilliant purple and Tentomon digivolved to Mega-Kabuterimon to distract them while the others went inside soon the warp affecting the gravity was fixed and Motimon fell down the stairs. Izzy quickly caught him and they rushed to get to the gate before something else came along. When they arrived they looked at the nine slots and then the cards. While they were looking they heard something going on and Patamon went to investigate. Tai was worried that this indicated a time crunch they couldn’t afford. Sure enough Patamon announced that the castle was collapsing.  
Joe said that Tai should make a decision because they all trusted him  
“Even without you being our king look at what happened. We fell apart when you went missing and you were the one to bring us all back together.”  
Tai made the decision to have Izzy try and figure out the pattern as he knew he was the best for the job. Izzy figured out that it had to do with attributes and level. In the end the fake was between Agumon and Gomamon who were both rookie level data types. Izzy then left it up to Tai to decide which one to use. Before he could start Dokugumon showed up and attacked. Gabumon, Gomamon, and Palmon digivolved to buy some time as Tai placed the cards. Yokomon even managed to digivolve to Biyomon though still not fully recovered.  
Ikkakumon, Togemon and Garurumon got caught in the web of Dokugumon until Garurumon digivolved to Were-Garurumon and got them out. Ikkakumon and Togemon reverted to their rookie stages and Matt shouted at Tai that they were out of time. Tai placed the two remaining cards faced down and reacted with instinct ending up choosing the Gomamon card which caused the gate to open. Were-Garurumon shot one final attack to defeat Dokugumon before reverting back to Tsunomon who Matt carried through the gate. Luckily he made it through in time and when they arrived they found they were back at camp.   
The digimon went to get some food while they recovered from the jump. Now they just had to get back to Highton View Terrace which was where Myotismon was. First they went to the camp to see how much time had passed. Then they saw their camp teacher. He told them camp was closing early because of the weather and they needed to pack up immediately. Then he asked them where they got the toys. They said they found them on a trail and Tai said they were taking them to his little sister because she couldn’t go to camp.  
“That’s right she caught a cold didn’t she.”  
“Yes but she’s feeling much better now.”  
As they were packing up Joe turned to Tai  
“I didn’t know you had a little sister Tai.”  
“I don’t.”  
“I don’t understand. What about Kari?” Joe  
“Remember that rumor I confirmed for the digimon?”  
“You mean Kari is your daughter?” Matt  
“Yup she doesn’t know yet though. I planned to tell her at camp so she had time to adjust before heading back home and to school.”  
“Wait if she’s your daughter then does that mean she’s the one we’re looking for?” Matt  
“Most likely, but we should still stop at Highton View Terrace first.”  
“Oh Tai there was also something I wanted to talk to you about. I asked Gennai what made him different from digimon and he said it was because he didn’t have and attributes.”  
“That’s right every digimon has at least three attributes. The first is whether they are data, vaccine or virus type. The second is what they use to fight. The last is species like how Biyomon is a bird like digimon. Her attributes are data, fire and phoenix. It’s important to know your attributes as they help you with fighting and with data sharing.”  
“What is data sharing?” Matt  
Tai flushed a bit as he said,  
“It’s how digimon have kids. They mix some of their data together to form a new digimon. If their data is compatible enough a child forms. You need to have at least one attribute in common or data sharing won’t work. For most digimon they send the combined data to primary village and an egg forms. For our type of digimon it is more like humans with a live birth and an incubation period of nine months.”  
“So what are your attributes?”  
“My attributes are data, fire, and dragon.”  
“Dragon?”  
“Yeah it’s easier to see after I digivolve though. There’s also something that bothers me.”  
“What?” Joe  
“That Gatomon had a tail ring.”  
“What does that have to do with anything?” Joe  
“Well dark Gatomon don’t have the tail ring it’s a creation of light. A Gatomon with a tail-ring is a holy beast like Patamon. So why was Gatomon working for Myotismon?”  
“Well for now we have no way of answering that so let’s just finish packing and meet the others.” Matt  
The others agreed that they should stop at Highton View Terrace and they asked their teacher if he could drop them off there because as it turned out they all used to live there. The bus driver said they did drive nearby and it wouldn’t take much time, but the teacher still had objections until Matt cut in saying it would break TK’s heart if they couldn’t go because it was the last place they lived together before their parents’ divorce. TK buried his face in Matt’s chest with an appropriate woebegone expression and Joe said he’d take responsibility for getting them home.  
Finally the teacher agreed as long as they called to tell their parents where they were. Soon they were on their way. It didn’t take long for them to arrive. Tai wondered how he never noticed them even when they all lived in the same building. He decided it was probably because their energy levels were too low to show up on his radar. As they were looking the saw a fleet of bats and started running. They started getting nostalgic about the area except for Izzy. Tai asked why and he said that he only lived there for about six months. Then Joe mentioned it was probably because of what happened. Before he could tell them what he remembered a bunch of police cars passed.  
They followed in case it had something to do with Myotismon. They saw a bunch of destruction being caused by Mammothmon. Biyomon was able to digivolve to Birdramon to fight it because there wasn’t anyone in the area. As they fought the others began to remember something. TK said,  
“There were two monsters.” And Tai realized they were remembering the fight between Parrotmon and Greymon  
“I remember a ball of fire destroyed the bridge before, but it wasn’t the flying one.” Matt  
“You’re right there were two different digimon fighting back then.” Tai  
Before he could explain further Birdramon got hit by ice and Sora’s worry and love caused her to digivolve to Garudamon. Having Garudamon protecting him and Sora reminded Tai of Greymon protecting him and Kari.  
“The fire breathing monster was Greymon. I brought a digi-egg over to protect Kari when I was at school or out and it digivolved when we got attacked by Parrotmon when the fight was over they both returned to the digital world.” Tai  
“That pretty much clinches it Tai. The eighth child was someone who was at Highton View Terrace at the time of the attack and was one of us who are really digimon. It can only be Kari.” Izzy  
“I know Izzy I just hoped I could keep her out of this.”  
Tai didn’t know it, but Matt was feeling the same about wanting to keep Kari away from the fight, but he couldn’t understand why. He wanted answers, but knew Tai wouldn’t tell him anything about their old lives until they remembered.


	11. Their Child (8th digidestined)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took a while to get this up I had to finish my term paper

They needed to get to Kari before Myotismon. First they were going to take the subway back to Odaiba. Izzy figured out which route would get them there the fastest and they all bought their tickets. While they were on the train Sora offered her seat to a woman carrying a small child. Unfortunately the child grabbed Yokomon and tugged hard. She could only keep silent for so long before screaming which attracted the attention of the rest of the compartment. This did get the child to let go and Sora played it off as ventriloquism. Fortunately they believed her. Unfortunately one of the kids demanded his parent get him a doll like Yokomon.  
This led to his father asking Sora where she got it. They stopped at Nerima station and Sora shouted that she got it there and everyone but them got off. It was nice having the compartment to themselves. They were meant to get off at Nakano station unfortunately with all the running around they did they were all exhausted and fell asleep. This caused them to miss their stop. When they got off everyone was hungry and they decided it would be a good idea to eat before moving on. Unfortunately Izzy and Joe got separated and by the time they got back everyone else already finished eating.  
Since they didn’t have any money left they tried to find someone to give them a ride. Everyone tried their hand at getting someone to spot. It seemed hopeless until Sora’s cousin spotted them and gave them a lift. Unfortunately the fast food caused Koromon to create a mess in the car and Sora’s cousin lunged at Joe thinking it was him. Izzy tried to stop him and ended up getting knocked off the bridge. Motimon digivolved to Tentomon to save him, but before they could get back on the bridge Gesomon came out of the water.  
Gomamon digivolved into Ikkakumon and he jumped into the water to fight Gesomon. When he defeated Gesomon they all jumped down onto him and he transported them away from the crowd so they wouldn’t be seen. They decided to travel the rest of the way to Odaiba that way. When they arrived they decided it was best they each head home so they could reassure their parents that they were alright. Plus they didn’t want to get the teacher who dropped them off at Highton View Terrace in trouble.  
When Tai got home he saw his human parents were also home. He smiled and hugged them both. They may not be his real parents, but they loved him and he loved them. At first it was only a convenient place to recover now it was home. He still intended to return to living in the digital world, but visiting was definitely in the plan. He figured it was probably time to tell them the whole truth. He could even give them proof with Koromon and his own abilities. He just hoped they wouldn’t freak out too much.  
“Hey, mom dad, I have something to tell you and Kari, things about… before.”  
His parents looked at him in surprise and Kari looked confused before his mom smiled at him.  
“If you’re sure you’re ready Tai.”  
“I am and thank you for waiting.”  
He began to tell his story. Meanwhile Izzy arrived home to his mother on the phone. She asked how he liked camp and he told her about camp being cancelled because of the snow. Then he went to his room to let Tentomon in and to let his mom get back to her conversation. As soon as he got Tentomon in the house he told him mom he was going to visit Tai who he mentioned he met at camp and told her he wouldn’t be long. He still wasn’t quite ready to confront her about the knowledge of his adoption.  
In either case as Tai said he shouldn’t dismiss connections just because they weren’t blood related. Granted he was talking to TK, but the sentiment was the same. As he left instead of going to visit Tai he went to get a lock for his door. He hoped his parents would consider it just a sudden need for privacy as he was getting older.  
Tentomon spoke about how nice his mother seemed and Izzy admitted he felt lucky to have her. As they were speaking his mother called him for dinner although he tensed up at the realization that she heard him speaking to Tentomon. He said he was trying a new comedy routine and his parents clapped for him when he finished. Yes, Izzy knew how lucky he was to have them.  
Back with the Kamiya’s Tai had finished his story and was waiting for everyone to react. Koromon had helped with the telling and it seemed they were accepting it as the truth. Tai fidgeted a bit while waiting for them to react final his dad said,  
“So does this mean you’re really older than us?”  
Tai look up in shock  
“Well I guess, but I’ve never really considered it. After I lost my parents I had to grow up quickly being with the two of you was like being a kid again. It was nice and something I hadn’t had in a long time. So does this upset you?”  
“Tai we love you. No matter what we consider you our son. The only thing is what does this mean for Kari?”  
“Well that’s up to her. I’d be delighted if she would call me dad now, but that doesn’t mean she should stop calling you dad or that it would be safe to do in public right now. You’re as much her parents as I am.”  
Tai was relieved with the acceptance he received. He knew his parents were still a little off balance from the new information, but the fact that they hadn’t demanded he leave or called him unnatural made him smile. Kari seemed to be deep in thought and then she asked him a question.  
“Tai you said I almost shined with light when I was a baby how come the other digimon haven’t found me?”  
“I cloaked your power the same way I cloaked TK’s. It’s not impossible to find you though which is why we need to add some safety measures to the apartment.”  
“Oh like what?” Yuuko  
“Well now that I’m mostly recovered I can put some basic shielding up.”  
“As long as you’re careful and don’t wear yourself out Tai.” Susumu  
With that his mom went to finish cooking dinner and he started to work on the shielding. It was similar to the cloaking he had on TK and Kari, but focused more on the area than a single person. After they ate dinner Tai settled Kari in bed and kissed her forehead like always.  
“I love you baby girl.”  
“I love you too… dad.”  
Tai smiled before he headed back to his bunk to get some rest himself.  
When Matt got home after dropping off TK he was surprised to note his dad was also home. He usually worked late.  
“Matt I thought you were at camp.”  
“It got cancelled because of the snow. Dad I have something to talk to you about.”  
“Sure anything I can help with?”  
“Dad, I know I’m adopted.”  
His dad first seemed surprised then resigned.  
“Well I figured this day would come. Have you started to remember then?”  
“Remember? Well I guess not much. I remember running, but it was like I was running to something, like I needed to protect someone.”  
“I’m not surprised. The person was probably TK. See about eight years ago your mother and I found you in the streets holding TK. Your clothes were battered and you were hurt. You told us you were Yamato and that TK was Takeru. Before we could learn anything else you passed out. We brought you and TK to get you both checked out and learned that TK was a perfectly healthy 2 month old baby, but you were badly bruised on your back like you’d been hit by something hard and heavy. When we couldn’t find anything about you we figured you probably came from an abusive home. We believe you ran away to prevent TK from getting hurt like you were. We wanted to see if we could find your parents to get them arrested, but when you woke up you didn’t remember a thing. All you did was clutch the harmonica you were found with.”  
“My harmonica, I had that with me?”  
“Yes you also had this.”  
His dad went to a dresser and pulled out a locket.  
“It was around your neck. I tried opening it, but the latch wouldn’t budge and I didn’t want to break it.”  
Matt took the locket his dad held out and as he held it he could feel that it was important to him. Almost like muscle memory he pulled the locket over his head.  
“Thank you dad.”  
“I love you Matt no matter what.”  
“I love you too.”  
Matt then got up to make dinner before heading to bed. He had a lot to think about.  
Izzy at this time was checking out the different things Gennai had put on his computer. He clicked the one labeled radar and saw it gave the location of a digimon that was attacking. He called Tai, but was told by his mother that he was still sleeping.  
He called each of the others, but they were also sleeping. Tentomon mentioned that he should be sleeping himself, but he couldn’t with that unknown digimon out there. First he disguised Tentomon with a raincoat then he took a cab to the bay where the digimon was. It was Raremon. As they faced him Izzy’s digivice went off. Tentomon told him to follow it while he fought Raremon. Izzy nodded and Tentomon digivolved into Kabuterimon.  
Meanwhile Tai’s mother shook him awake and told him about Izzy’s phone call mentioning he sounded nervous. Tai called back worried and when Izzy’s mother mentioned he wasn’t answering his door Tai wondered if he should head over, but decided if it was important Izzy would have had his mother wake him. He headed out onto the balcony and Kari mentioned their cat Miko disappeared. Then Tai’s digivice went off and he noticed the signal was moving too fast for a human.  
As best he could figure Miko probably batted the digivice onto the balcony where it got picked up by some bird. Either way, he had to get it back and he rushed to follow the signal. Unfortunately he couldn’t reach the signal in time and decided it would be better if he got some rest before he met the others tomorrow. Izzy arrived to walk with him as they lived close to each other. When they met up in the park Tai told them his theory about the digivice being moved by a bird.  
“That explains how the signal vanished so quickly last night.”  
“Well until we find it we can’t mention anything about her. I don’t want them finding her until she can defend herself.”  
The others agreed and they made plans to patrol the area to keep attacking digimon from destroying too much. Joe mentioned that he wanted to get some studying in so he couldn’t join the patrols. Tai nodded and they all left.  
Kari went walking to look for Miko and came across Gatomon. She recognized that Gatomon was a digimon even though Gatomon pretended to be a cat. Kari knew Tai warned her to be careful, but she didn’t sense anything bad about Gatomon. On the contrary Gatomon made her feel safe and connected. It was like she had another friend. She decided to head home and Gatomon silently followed. She could sense Gatomon was still there and left the door open so she could enter.  
As Tai and Izzy were looking around for the digivice they noticed a tower was shimmering like it was in the desert. Izzy figured something must be happening and Tai saw Birdramon with his Mini-telescope. He and Izzy rushed over on Kabuterimon. When they got closer they saw Togemon and Birdramon were fighting a digimon called Skull-Meramon. He shot a blast at one of the joints causing the tower to begin to fall Kabuterimon rushed to hold it up while Agumon digivolved into Metal-Greymon to fight. It was tough, but he managed to hit Skull-Meramon with a giga-blaster and saved the tower. It had extensive damage, but no one got hurt.  
Kari was watching it on the news while Gatomon watched her. Gatomon got closer and then Kari looked up at her. Gatomon was unprepared for the feelings that Kari inspired in her and ran off. Kari was disappointed, but somehow she knew Gatomon would be back. Since she was alone she thought about everything Tai told her. It didn’t feel odd calling him dad. He’d always been like that towards her. It sparked a memory from a long time ago.  
She didn’t know what was happening, but she was cold and crying. Then there was a voice that she knew was Tai comforting her and promising her that they’d find someone. Other than that all she remembered were two different smells. One was Tai, and it was like fire, woodsy and something unique to Tai. The other scent was also woodsy and held a scent that was almost like animal fur and something else. She didn’t know who that other smell was only that it was important. In the end she continued watching the news while waiting for Tai to return.


	12. Taking a Chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> meant to post this yesterday but I completely forgot

When Tai arrived the phone rang it was Joe asking for an update. Tai mentioned that he still couldn’t find the digivice, but that he had an idea about who Kari’s digimon was. He didn’t want to say it over the phone just in case, but Tai believed that the Gatomon was meant to be Kari’s partner. That was lucky as it meant that even through brainwashing Gatomon wouldn’t be able to harm Kari. He wondered what Myotismon must have done to her that made her work for him.  
He didn’t want to think about how bad it must have been. He watched to news so he could get an idea of how bad it was getting. They had been there two days and still didn’t know where Myotismon was although it was clear he had been attacking young women. When the news switched to the weather he heard the phone ringing and was happy to hear from Matt. According to Matt he had been in the city with TK and they got attacked by Myotismon.  
“Tai he’s on a warpath. We need to make sure Kari is kept safe.”  
“Matt I’m just as worried about Kari as you are. Trust me I would never do anything to risk her safety.”  
“I know Tai I’m sorry I just can’t help but worry.”  
“I understand. It’s getting late I’ll talk to you tomorrow ok?”  
“Alright.”  
With that Tai settled in he’d been wondering what to do when Agumon mentioned there were digimon out of the balcony with Kari. One was Gatomon the other was Wizardmon. Wizardmon explained that he helped Gatomon remember her past looking for Kari. Then he gave Tai Kari’s digivice so it would be harder to determine who the eighth digi-destined was. What they needed to do was get the real crest back. As Myotismon didn’t know that Gatomon remembered they could sneak in to get it. Tai didn’t like the plan as it put them both at risk, but he also knew he had no choice.  
Kari looked sad as she warned them to be careful and Tai knew there wasn’t much he could do to comfort her. He put his arms around her as they waited then they saw a clash in the distance that wasn’t natural and knew it meant Gatomon and Wizardmon were fighting which meant they had probably been caught. Tai rushed out warning Kari to stay inside the shield he put up and he would be back with Gatomon as soon as he could. He arrived to help unfortunately Agumon wasn’t strong enough on his own. Even digivolving into Metal-Greymon wasn’t enough. Tai had to watch as Gatomon was carried off.  
As he headed home he noticed the fog getting denser. It was bad because if the fog got thick enough Myotismon could come out even in the day. Also when he got home he noticed the fog was stopping all kinds of transmitting devices like the phones and even the TV. Tai tried to get Kari to sleep, but she was too worried about Gatomon and kept looking out the window. Tai promised they would go looking for her in the morning. Eventually Tai managed to get Kari into bed even if she wasn’t asleep yet. He told her that she didn’t need to be afraid and he would take care of it.   
Matt was worried about his father who still wasn’t home. It seemed like he was working late probably trying to find out what was wrong with the TV transmissions. TK and Joe were the only ones outside of the fog. Matt had gotten to sleep when he was woken up by his father who told him to get up and dressed as quickly as possible.   
Tai was trying to see if the phone was back up when he heard a commotion. Bakemon were infiltrating everywhere taking people out of their homes. Luckily with the barrier Tai put up they wouldn’t be able to reach the apartment. Unfortunately his father was outside the barrier. It seemed Myotismon was gathering all the children in the area in an attempt to find the eighth child. Agumon digivolved to try and get him, but then Phantommon showed up and they had to escape with Kari. Tai just hoped that wherever they were taking everyone they would be alright.  
They were all being kept in the same place Sora and Mimi were glad to see each other and Mimi had even managed to keep Palmon from being discovered. She was worried for her family when Dark-Tyrannomon attacked and Palmon digivolved into Togemon. This wasn’t enough especially with all the Bakemon. Mimi was in tears over her worry for Togemon who was getting hit with fire. Then her crest and digivice began to glow a nice leafy green and Togemon digivolved into Lillymon. Lillymon was too small and fast for Dark-Tyrannomon to hit and she encircled him with a flower wreath which counteracted the virus which caused him to go dark in the first place.  
Meanwhile Tai was running with Kari when they both bumped into Matt. He seemed relieved to see them. While Kari was helping Agumon with his injuries Matt and Tai discussed how Myotismon had used to fog to cut off the entire district. They were interrupted by Kari saying it was her fault it was happening. Myotismon was doing it because he was looking for her. Tai and Matt were both quick to reassure her. Tai was determined to go out looking for his parents and Gatomon. He asked Matt to watch Kari and he nodded. He told Matt to give him two hours and that if he wasn’t back by then to try and get back to the shielded apartment.   
As Tai left Kari sat next to Matt and hugged him. Then she got a surprise when she breathed in. Matt’s scent was woodsy, furry and something else. Just like the other scent she remembered. It made her wonder. Tai was her dad was Matt her other parent? She knew it wasn’t possible here, but maybe it was in the digital world. She didn’t want to say anything to Matt in case she was wrong, but she resolved to ask Tai or Gatomon whenever she next saw them.  
Izzy meanwhile had been able to set up a barrier around his own apartment he also got a message from Gennai stating how he could destroy the fog barrier he set out immediately telling his mom he’d stay as safe as possible.  
Tai had run into Sora and directed her to where Matt was and she told him where all the people were being held. Tai starting running there with Agumon while Sora headed towards Matt. Kari was wondering if everyone would be ok and Matt was trying to reassure her without lying to her. Unfortunately he wasn’t very good at it and she started crying. This triggered something in his memory.   
*flashback*  
He was holding something- no not something someone, a baby. The baby was crying and then Tai leaned over his shoulder and said,  
“Do you want me to take her Matt? I know you haven’t been sleeping well. You spend most of the night watching her.”  
“How could I not watch her Tai? She’s our daughter and I don’t want to miss a single moment of her life.”  
Matt did pass Hikari to Tai and he began walking around with her to sooth her and eventually she fell asleep.  
“Matt I know you don’t want to be away from her, but you won’t be able to help her if you pass out. If you like we can set up the bed so she can sleep with us. It might help your worries if she were in the same room.”  
“Would you Tai? I know it’s irrational, but I keep getting the feeling like if I’m not watching her she’ll slip away from me.”  
“Irrational or not it’s no trouble to try and put your fears to rest. Here hold her while I got get one of those u shaped pillows for her to sleep on.”  
When he handed Hikari to Matt she turned and snuggled into Matt’s chest.  
“Look at that she’s not even a month old and she’s already picking favorites.”  
“Tai-”  
“Don’t worry about it Matt you’re my favorite too.”  
Tai leaned down and kissed Matt gently before leaving the room.  
*flashback end*  
Matt was nearly reeling in shock to the point where he barely noticed Gabumon berating him for making Kari cry. He was her father. He was Tai’s husband. For being such a short memory a lot could be taken from it. He didn’t realize it at first, but soon he noticed he was clutching the locket. He thought about it and suddenly he knew how to open it. He focused a minute amount of energy into one of his fingers, it was small enough not to gain any attention, and he placed his finger on the locket which began to open. On one side was a picture of him and Tai, but much older like they were in their 20s. The other was a picture of Tai holding a small bundle that Matt knew was Hikari.  
When the two hour mark hit Matt was getting worried and then Sora showed up. Unfortunately so did Phantommon, and he brought Tuskmon and Snimon. Gabumon digivolved into Garurumon and Birdramon digivolved into Garudamon but it wasn’t enough soon Phantommon’s chain was around Matt’s neck and his arm was the only thing stopping him from choking. Then Kari gave herself up as the eighth child to get Phantommon to stop. Matt tried to stop her, but he could barely speak with the damage in his throat. He felt like his heart was being ripped out. He was about to lose the daughter he only just remembered he had. Matt struggled to his feet and banged his hand against the wall.  
“Matt you can’t blame yourself.”  
“Yes I can. Tai trusted me to protect her and I couldn’t!”  
“Ok Matt there are two things we can do you can stay here and sulk or we can go find a way to recue Kari.”  
“You’re right let’s get her.”  
Tai at this point had reached the convention center and was fighting the Bakemon. He soon was able to meet up with Mimi who told him that Myotismon put all the other children to sleep as demi-Devimon reported they found the eighth child. Tai’s eyes widened that meant they had Kari. Tai worried about Matt he knew he wouldn’t give up Kari without a fight. Either way he followed as quickly as he could. On his way he saw Garudamon, Were-Garurumon and Zudomon fighting. He urged Greymon to go faster and help. The others were trying to protect Kari and Wizardmon managed to get the crest to her before being hurt by Myotismon. The problem was it would only work if Tai got her the digivice. He drew Myotismon’s attention  
“You picked on the wrong child Myotismon. Kari catch!”  
He threw the digivice over to her but Demi-Devimon grabbed it. Myotismon sent Phantomon to attack, but Greymon digivolved into Metal-Greymon to defend him. They all sent their attacks at Myotismon, but it wasn’t working. Then Patamon digivolved into Angemon and used his hand of fate. It destroyed Phantomon and hurt Myotismon. Holy attacks were especially strong against dark digimon like Myotismon. Unfortunately it didn’t stop him and he sent a grizzly wing attack at Kari and Gatomon. Before it could hit them Wizardmon threw himself in front of them. As he was dying Gatomon apologized for getting him involved in this and he told her with a smile that he had no regrets.  
Kari’s reaction caused her digivice to glow which made Demi-Devimon drop it. Tai caught it and tossed it to Kari. She caught it and Gatomon digivolved into Angewomon. The angel of light, it was fitting for Hikari. Even now with it cloaked he could still feel her overflowing with the power of light. Angewomon cast Heaven’s Charm which restored their power while diminishing Myotismon’s. They all gave Angewomon some of their power for her to use against Myotismon by using their most powerful attacks which joined with the heaven’s charm and she channeled it all into a celestial arrow. It pierced through Myotismon and everything vanished but his visor.   
Lillymon, Zudomon, Mega-Kabuterimon, and Garudamon reverted back to their in training stages, Metal-Greymon, Were-Garurumon and Angemon to their rookie stages and Angewomon reverted back to her champion stage of Gatomon. They thought they were done, but instead of dispersing the fog got thicker. As they were wondering what to do Izzy got a message from Gennai which contained an ancient prophecy he just translated.  
The sky will be darkened by the wings of many bats  
The fallen people will invoke the name of the undead digimon king  
And when the clock strikes the hour of the beast  
The undead king will reveal himself in his true form as the beast  
Then angels will shot arrows of hope and light   
At the loved ones of those they have been sent to protect  
And a miracle will happen  
Unable to figure out what it meant they decided to see if they could find their families. Mimi went to get dressed as she didn’t like the idea of staying in her pajamas. They were all waiting for Joe and he came out with his older brother Jim. Matt’s father directed most of them to check out the convention center and the rest to come with him to try and figure out the fog barrier. They went to the convention center and started taking care of the Bakemon that were there. It caused Tanemon, Yokomon, Motimon, and Bukamon to digivolve. When they finished they checked on all the people. They were so still it was worrisome, but Jim confirmed their pulses were steady.  
Kari felt bad believing it was her fault and Sora was quick to reassure her that the spell would wear off and the people would be fine. Izzy was talking to his parents who were coming clean about him being adopted.  
“You see it was shortly after we lost our son that we found you wandering the streets like you were looking for something. You weren’t hurt, but your clothes had been torn up. When we asked who you were and what you were doing out so late you said that you were Koushiro and you had to find your friends and make sure they were ok. We agreed to help you look, but before we got far you seemed to pass out from exhaustion. When you woke up you didn’t remember much beside you were searching from something.”  
“Either way, just know we both love you so much.”  
“I know mom and I love you both too.”  
It was a touching scene. After this the people who were sleeping seemed to wake up and chant ‘Lord Myotismon’. According to Jim though they were still asleep it was like they were all having the same dream. Things were starting to match up with that prophecy and they were only 6 minutes from the hour of the beast. They all got into the van and started heading to where the bats were converging. A building shattered to reveal Venom-Myotismon.  
Agumon and Gabumon digivolved all the way to Were-Garurumon and Metal-Greymon and still their attacks didn’t seem to faze him. They told Tai and Matt to warn the others while they held back Venom-Myotismon. As they headed out Matt turned to Tai and said,  
“Tai can you…” He paused he didn’t know quite how to phrase his question, but it seemed Tai understood anyway,  
“No I still don’t have enough energy. I am close, but not close enough.”  
When they got there they picked up the others, Gatomon and Patamon digivolved to Angewomon and Angemon. When they got back Metal-Greymon and Were-Garurumon were drained of their energy. Angemon and Angewomon were just in time to stop them from getting crushed. Watching them Matt’s father was reminded about the prophecy talking about angels. When they got to the loved ones they thought about what it could mean and realized what it was. Obviously for Izzy his loved ones would be his mom and dad, for Kari as they learned Tai was her dad, but for TK it was something else a brother. Tai and Matt looked at each other and nodded.  
Kari and TK seemed uneasy, but agreed and told Angemon and Angewomon to shoot their arrows at Matt and Tai. Gabumon and Agumon protested, but Matt and Tai were firm. They put of false bravado and Matt reached out to grab Tai’s hand. He never got a chance to talk to him about what he remembered, but figured this would be enough. They felt the arrows enter their backs and they began to glow with power.  
Agumon warp-digivolved into War-Greymon and Gabumon warp-digivolved into Metal-Garurumon, it was time to attack.


	13. I will always love you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yeah this has a lot of feels be prepared

Their attacks were having more of an effect, but it still didn’t seem to be enough. Even though the others couldn’t digivolve as far they still rushed to help as much as they can. War-Greymon directed them to attack at the same time. With that and his Mega-claw he was able to tear a hole in Venom-Myotismon. They hoped it would be enough, but he still got back up. Then the crests began to glow. The light that came from them wrapped around Venom-Myotismon. With him bound War-Greymon used the TV tower like a ball, shot it at him and followed it up with a Terra Force. Metal-Garurumon joined him with a metal wolf claw.  
Finally Venom-Myotismon began to disperse. They celebrated, but then when the sky began to clear up it showed something impossible. The digital world was showing through. That wasn’t good as Tai realized it meant the barrier between the digital world and earth was weakening. Tai wouldn’t object to better relations between the real world and the digital world, but if the barrier between them was gone both worlds would collapse and the destruction would ripple out into other worlds. It’d be an unending cycle. Jim showed up to tell them their families were back to normal which was a relief.   
Then Tai looked up and noticed a plane that was losing control. It wasn’t like the fighter planes which had safety measures so the pilot could get out. This was a commercial airline and it was going to crash. Biyomon digivolved to Garudamon to hold the plane up and Kabuterimon went to help her. They managed to get the plane down safely. Now Gomamon, Palmon and Salamon were the only ones not in the in-training stage.  
Tai and the others easily figured out that a lot more time had passed in the digital world and it must have gotten a lot worse since they left. They all made the decision to return. Tai had them all hold out their digivices and using the energy in them Tai created a road back to the digital world. It didn’t take much energy now since the barrier was weak. As the started rising up they all said good-bye to their families sad to be leaving once more, but knowing it was for the good of the world.  
When they arrived Joe saw something and all the digimon in their in training staged digivolved, but Kari stopped them from attacking what turned out to be Chumon. It was odd seeing him by himself. Then Joe shouted bring their attention back to the fact that he was hanging off a cliff. Tai and Matt easily pulled him up. They saw the area in front of them was shifting and crumbling. They waited a while and when Chumon woke up he told them what happened. A lot of the digital world had been relocated to spiral mountain. The ones behind it all were called the dark masters. That was when Metal-Seadramon showed up  
The digimon all digivolved to their champion stage to fight, but Metal-Seadramon was a mega and they weren’t powerful enough he sent them tumbling down where they met Machine-dramon another mega. Everyone, but Patamon digivolved into their Ultimate forms, but it still wasn’t enough. They were sent tumbling down again and that was when Tai realized something. They weren’t trying to kill them at least not yet. They wanted to play first. It aggravated Tai that they were being so underestimated and he could only hope it would work in their favor.  
Then they were attached to puppet strings by Puppetmon. He didn’t mess with them much just caused their digimon to revert back before sending them off again. Finally it was the last and worst of them Piedmon. War-Greymon and Metal-Garurumon both tried, but there were still fairly new mega digimon. Piedmon had a lot of experience on them. He was mocking them calling their attempts at fighting back a comedy of errors. Tai worried as it seemed the games were over now. Piedmon decided to take out Mimi first and shot a dagger at her, but Chumon got in the way.  
Tai tensed as his data scattered, but before Piedmon could attack them again a bomb appeared. It was Piximon. He covered them all in a disguise barrier, but they were discovered. Piximon left the Barrier and sent them off determined to give them enough time to get away. The ended up at a beach they’d been at a long time ago on file island Shellmon even made an appearance. Tentomon, Palmon and Biyomon were able to defeat him and Tai used this as a way of showing how much stronger they had gotten.  
Then the sun seemed to get brighter and Tentomon noticed a snack bar in the distance. When they entered in search of food they saw Scorpiomon instead. He blew a sandstorm at them and Tai curled around Kari and TK as much as he could to protect them. Luckily Joe and Mimi were outside. The sand was making it hard to breathe and before long they all passed out. When he woke up it was to Mimi and Joe directing them out of a hole in the back of the shack and not a moment too soon as Metal-Seadramon roasted it. He soon found out they weren’t in it and chased them. Lillymon got his attention and led him off while they escaped on Zudomon. Unfortunately he saw them and hit Lillymon causing her to revert back to Palmon. Another hit had Zudomon back to Gomamon. Things were getting bad but before Metal-Seadramon could take another shot Whamon showed up and rescued them. He slammed into Metal-Seadramon gathered them all in his mouth and swam away. They knew Metal-Seadramon would catch up again eventually, but hopefully by then they would be better prepared. While they were traveling Matt approached Tai.  
“Tai I’d like to talk to you in private or at least as private as we can get at this point.”  
Tai nodded and they walked out of earshot of the others.  
“What is it you wanted to talk about?”  
“Kari’s mine isn’t she? She’s my daughter too. I don’t know fully what happened, but she was crying and when you handed her to me you said ‘only a month old-‘“  
“-And already picking favorites.”  
“So it’s real then.”  
“Yeah it’s real.”  
Mat was silent for the next few seconds and he looked over at Hikari who was talking to TK.  
“I don’t remember much, but every so often I get flashes of places I’ve never been, but feel like I have.”  
“Matt you don’t have to push it. I waited 8 years to see you again a little longer won’t kill me. We’ve got all the time in the world.”  
“What if we don’t?”  
Tai thought for a moment and then said,  
“I’m going to tell you something I never told you before. It was back before we first met officially. I’d seen you from the castle you were playing the harmonica. You were so beautiful and I knew I had to meet you. I was hooked. Even if you turned me down I loved you from the moment I saw you. Every single thing I learned about you made me love you more and more, but I knew from the start that you were it for me. That hasn’t changed and even if you never remember well then I’ll just have to woo you again. At least this time I hopefully won’t make as many mistakes.”  
Matt snorted in amusement a soft smile on his face.  
“Thanks Tai.”  
“Anytime Matt, now we should probably head back to the others before they start getting suspicious.”  
Matt nodded and they were soon joining in the others’ conversation. Soon they stopped in a cove; started fishing for dinner and Matt began playing his harmonica to pass the time. All too soon though Gomamon heard from the fish that Divermon were in the area. Whamon had them get inside him and began to dive down deep into the water, but the Divermon spotted them anyway. Tai wanted to fight, but Whamon wanted to try one more thing first and began diving even deeper. As expected the Divermon couldn’t take the pressure and had to pull off.   
The problem was that they couldn’t stay at the bottom of the ocean forever. Izzy had Kari blow her whistle as long as she could and used it as a form of echolocation. He was soon able to find a tunnel that would lead them to land. When they came up though Metal-Seadramon was there, Whamon used his tidal wave attack and Agumon digivolved into War-Greymon to give the others time to get to land. As soon as they all got off Whamon Tai thanked him for his help and asked him to leave as quickly as he could because they didn’t want him to get hurt.   
War-Greymon fought Metal-Seadramon while Zudomon fought the Divermon. The battle was going badly for War-Greymon as he was caught in Metal-Sea-dramon’s jaws. Whamon hit Metal-Seadramon and got him to let go only to be badly hit. War-Greymon then used his Nova force attack entering Metal-Sea-dramon’s mouth and destroying him from the inside. They had defeated the first of the dark masters. They soon ran over to Whamon to see how he was doing. Unfortunately he only had time to give them his last wish before his data scattered. The ground started rumbling and they saw the ocean part of Spiral Mountain was coming down. That meant for every one of the dark masters they defeated a portion of the digital world would return to normal.  
Before they moved on Mimi constructed small graves for the friends they lost of the way. One for each Wizardmon, Chumon, Piximon and Whamon, Tai hoped that their data hadn’t been deleted. As long as it hadn’t there was a chance of seeing them again. Mimi protested leaving and when Tai tried to convince her Matt accused him of having ice running through his veins and told him he should think about how others felt for once. Before they could get into a fight Joe pointed out that they were vulnerable in the open and should get moving.  
Tai was lost in his thoughts about what Matt said. Did he really come off as so cold? Of course he cared about the people he lost, but if he ever stopped to think about it he worried he wouldn’t get back up again. The others just didn’t understand not only did he lose his entire kingdom, but he couldn’t even talk to anyone about it because the people closest to him didn’t remember and no one else would understand. He was brought out if his thought by Hikari asking if he was ok. He smiled looking more than a little tired and said,  
“I’ll be fine baby girl. Are you ok? If you’re getting tired I can carry you for a bit.”  
“No I’m fine. Did you hear that?”  
“I didn’t hear anything.”  
“I thought I heard a voice, but it must have been my imagination.”  
“Well let’s keep going let me know if you start getting tired.”  
“I will dad.”  
As they were walking suddenly the ground they were on started moving. They tried jumping off, but then another piece of ground started moving. Eventually they escaped into the trees and tried to remain hidden. Tia stood up carefully on one of the branches and said,  
“You guys stay here for now I’m going to try and find something for us to eat.”  
“I’ll come with you Tai.”  
“No Koromon you need time to recover, besides I’ll be able to move faster if I’m by myself. I may not look like it, but I can be quite stealthy if the situation calls for it.”  
Koromon nodded with reluctance and the others watched with a bit of amazement as Tai quickly leapt through the trees with the grace of an acrobat.   
“That Tai he keeps pushing us on like he doesn’t care.” Matt  
“Well if you think about it Matt of all of us he’s lost the most.” Izzy  
“What do you mean?” Mimi  
“Well our kingdom was attacked and from what Tentomon has been able to tell me it no longer exists. He lost his entire kingdom, people he loved and protected, we were the only survivors and Tai is the only one who remembers. I think if he were to stop and try and remember everyone he’s lost he might not get up again. He doesn't even have anyone to talk to about it. People on earth would have called him crazy, TK and Kari are too young and he doesn't want to risk mental damage by telling us. He must have been bottling it up for years.”  
Matt looked down slightly ashamed. He hadn’t thought about that. Before they could talk about it more Tai returned holding some fruit, and he passed it out to everyone.  
“I know it’s not much, but there’s only so much I can carry.”  
The others nodded, but didn’t speak as they were too busy reeling over what Izzy told them. Mimi felt a bit guilty wanting to stop, but she missed her friends. She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like for Tai. Matt also felt guilty as he looked at Tai. Now that he was trying he could see how worn Tai looked. It was like he was weighed down by and invisible burden, and though he smiled at Kari his eyes were full of grief.  
As soon as they finished eating they started teleporting all over the forest. It was getting dizzying until finally they were all back together again except for TK and they saw Matt was tied up. Gabumon released him and he said TK had been taken by Puppetmon. They were about to rally to rescue him when Kiwimon appeared. Tai said they had to defeat him first, but Matt wanted to get to TK as quickly as possible. Gabumon prepared to warp digivolve, but found he couldn’t Matt’s crest wasn’t glowing. He was shocked then Kiwimon launched another attack. Biyomon digivolved in to Birdramon and quickly defeated him before reverting back.  
As they were preparing to go after TK they got surprised when he found them himself. They were all proud of him for being able to escape by himself. They were so caught up in congratulating him the only one who saw Matt slip away was Gabumon who went after him and Joe who figured he needed a little time to be alone. When he didn’t come back the others began to get worried. Tai asked why Joe didn’t stop him and Joe mentioned how he thought Matt wouldn’t be gone for long.  
Tai was especially worried. Matt had been acting a little weird and he wondered if it was because of what he’d said. It probably was too early for such confessions, but he’d been so happy that Matt was starting to remember. They began trying to find him, but something about the forest was affecting their digivices. As they were looking Puppetmon appeared. He had a few Garbagemon with him.   
Tai cringed. The Garbagemon were exactly as the name implied. Not wanting to get hit with any toxic sludge they ran. When they got to a clearing they surrounded the Garbagemon and attacked them. Unfortunately they got away from the first round, but then Togemon digivolved to Lillymon who was much faster, and Greymon digivolved to Metal-Greymon to get the other two.   
He managed one of them, but the other pulled out some kind of suction thing and tried pulling them in. Kari was pulled off the ground, but before she could get pulled in Metal-Garurumon appeared. Tai felt relieved when he saw Matt, but it didn’t last long when he saw the look in Matt’s eye. He seemed to be in utter turmoil.   
Then to Tai’s surprise Metal-Garurumon attacked Agumon. Tai was torn. He didn’t want to fight Matt, but he knew Metal-Garurumon wouldn’t stop attacking unless Matt told him to and it could end up with Agumon getting killed if he didn’t digivolve. In the end the choice was made for him as Metal-Garurumon prepared to attack him and Agumon digivolve to save him.  
Still anyone who watched the pair could see neither of their hearts was in it. War-Greymon only dodged attacks he never initiated any of his own. Then Matt started trying to fight Tai who also was only dodging the attacks. It wasn’t a fair fight anyway. Matt didn’t remember all the training they went through together. He didn’t know how to summon his daggers. Tai didn’t know what to do. Metal-Garurumon and War-Greymon were equals in power no one would win if they kept fighting. Before he could think of something to do light started covering the area. Tai recognized it. It was Hikari’s light, but also something else.  
They seemed to be transferred somewhere else and Metal-Garurumon and War-Greymon had reverted back to Tsunomon and Koromon. Then he looked at Kari and felt there was something else with her. Something that was speaking through her, it told them that they were in a place that was both light and dark the light representing what was good and the dark representing what was evil.  
If the darkness grows too strong it throws everything out of balance. Then it showed them an image of their home on earth and Tai recognized it as the day Parrotmon attacked. The being was sort of like the digimon, but unable to form its own body so it had temporarily taken over Kari’s because Kari was the only one capable of it.  
“I wanted to talk to you when you first arrived on File Island, but it was impossible under the circumstances.”  
Then she showed them each under a light that was scanning them. Then she showed them what the scans were for. They were brought to a lab. In it they saw digi-eggs which were attached to crests and digivices. A bunch of see through people appeared. It was an image from the past and those people were ones whose job it was to monitor that balance of harmony in the world. Then the being explained that they were chosen because they enabled Greymon to survive and digivolve.  
“A digimon cannot digivolve without you, Greymon only digivolved then to protect you. The digivices were created to assist in that, but it is the individual qualities you all possess that enable them to digivolve. We took each of the qualities that was strongest in you and made a crest for them. If that trait is lost then the digimon might become corrupted.”  
“I can see why you chose Tai and Kari, but the rest of us never made contact with the digi-egg so why us?”  
“When we examined the data we came to the conclusion that you all had something in common with Tai and Kari, but we’re not quite sure what it means. All we know is that you’ve proven yourselves to be very capable. Each of these digi-eggs, are your digimon. Unfortunately the dark masters got wind of our plan and worked hard to ruin it.”  
The image showed digimon attacking the lab and all the researchers who couldn’t fight back. Then Piedmon appeared to take the crests and digi-eggs. He got the crests, but before he could grab anything else one of the researchers appeared with a sword and Piedmon’s words revealed the man to be Gennai. Piedmon stuck something in Gennai’s back, but he kept going. He pulled out a Bakemon and took over the Mekanorimon it had been controlling. He grabbed the digi-eggs and made a quick exit. As he traveled one of the shots knocked Gatomon’s digi-egg out of his hand and he couldn’t risk stopping.   
That’s why Gatomon grew up alone. She was saddened by the thought, but Biyomon cheered her up. They continued watching as the eggs were brought to File Island and many years passed before they began to hatch. The digimon played with the digivices first in their fresh stage, then in their in-training stage and then they were launched off and soon after they arrived falling out of the sky. The being stated they were still trying to find out what the dark masters were planning.  
“All we can do is try and stay one step ahead of them.”  
“So what should we do?”  
“I’m afraid you’ll have to find that out on your own.”  
With that they returned to the forest and Kari began to wake up. Tai wanted to move on, but Matt didn’t want to keep going with Tai.  
“You have your path and I have mine. Right now I’m not sure where that path is going to lead, but I have to find it for myself. I still believe in all of you and I know I would never have gotten here on my own it’s just… so confusing and I let it get to me. That’s why we fought. I need to be on my own for a while.”  
“But Matt your crest represents friendship.” Izzy  
“I know, but I haven’t been a very good friend. Maybe I don’t know the meaning of the word or maybe I’ve just forgotten, but I need to find myself again and I really need to do it alone.”  
Tai felt his heart clench, but he nodded. He hoped Matt found was he was looking for. They prepared to set off one person short, but then Mimi stopped. She didn’t want to see anyone else fight or get hurt. Joe decided to stay with her because it wasn’t safe for her to be alone. Tai wished them both luck and hoped they would be able to rejoin them later. Biyomon lamenting being separated when Gatomon said,  
“Were not really separated, the roads we’re taking may be different, but the destination is the same. If they truly are the digi-destined they’re destined to be together once again. At least I think so.”  
Tai was heartened by her words. He thought so too.


	14. Not really the end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> so this is the end of the first season and the end of this fic I will be doing season two hope you enjoy reading and Happy Thanksgiving

As they were walking the forest shook and Tentomon said it was a large meteor. Tai was considering checking it out, but in the end he decided to follow TK back to Puppetmon’s mansion. They needed to face Puppetmon anyway, but Tai was insistent on just going to look around. If they could avoid a fight they would. It would be bad fighting without the others. They were soon on their way. Sora was still nervous, but Tai assured her that if anything happened at the very least he could buy them time to escape.  
When they arrived Tai spotted to guards and he handed his digivice to Izzy so he could see who they were. The pair was Floramon and Deramon. Tai wanted to check out the building first to make sure there weren’t more inside, but the others wanted to go with him. Tai acquiesced to their decision and they all headed towards the mansion.  
They found out upon attacking them that the two weren’t guards and that Puppetmon only kept them around so he’d have someone to attack when he got bored. They told him Puppetmon was out at the moment and Tai figured it was a good time to check out the inside. Deramon and Floramon agreed to show them around.  
They had to be careful though as a lot of Puppetmon’s toys were destructive. As they finished exploring they noticed Puppetmon was returning. Deramon and Floramon pushed cannon to the window. They shot at Puppetmon who started charging the house. They were amazed at how enthusiastic Deramon and Floramon were about shooting Puppetmon. Sora figured it was good for them to release a little pent up aggression.  
When they ran out of ammo Tai and the others burst outside to chase Puppetmon, but were soon surrounded by red-Vegiemon it only took their champion stages to beat them. When facing Puppetmon Agumon warp digivolved into War-Greymon and the others besides TK went to their ultimate forms. They thought they had Puppetmon cornered, but then he activated his house which stood up to fight them.  
As they were dealing with the house Tai saw Puppetmon running, but then to his surprise he saw Metal-Garurumon who froze Puppetmon. When he was defeated the house fell apart. Sora thanked him, but it seemed Matt was still not ready to rejoin them. As the forest began to fall apart they rushed to another part of Spiral Island. As they walked in the heat Tai’s thoughts turned to Matt.  
It hurt that he couldn’t think of anything to help Matt. Not even essentially confessing his feelings had helped. Matt was in turmoil about his own feelings. It was painful to think about, but Tai decided if Matt didn’t want to be with him he had to let him go. As he was thinking this he heard a soft thump and turn to see Kari had fallen. He ran to her and felt her fever.  
It brought back memories of the last time she had gotten badly sick and he felt like a failure for not noticing that she had been lagging behind because he was so caught up in his thoughts. They carried her over to a bench that was in the shade and Tai fretted over what could be done to bring her fever down. He couldn’t do it himself he was fire aligned he could make it hotter, but not colder. Sora was also fire aligned and Izzy with lightning. TK was wind aligned, but he had no training.  
All things considered the others had no training either because they couldn’t remember it.  
“Kari why didn’t you say you weren’t feeling well we could have stopped and rested until you felt better.” Tai  
“You mad? I didn’t want to slow the group down.” Kari  
“Kari I’m not mad.”  
He was intensely worried all he could think about was the ambulance taking his daughter away. He berated himself for not paying better attention. Izzy tried to cheer him up, but he was far too worried. Then Tentomon showed up with news of a nearby town, he digivolved into Kabuterimon to take them there. When they arrived they saw a place that looked like a mesh of different cities like NYC and Paris.  
They landed in front of a house and got Kari into a bed. Tai searched the house, but all the medicine bottles were empty. He didn’t want to leave Kari, but knew he had to find something to bring her fever down. Luckily the house was air conditioned so the cool air should help.  
He left Kari with Sora and TK and went searching with Izzy. At the nearest phone booth Izzy connected his laptop and found the nearest place they could get Medicine at. It was a hospital as empty as the rest of the town. Again Tai was thrust into a memory he had tried to forget. Izzy connected his laptop to the phone network again to find out with medicine they needed. It didn’t take long to find what they needed and Tai was relieved. His relief was short lived as the hospital was attacked. There were Mekanorimon and Tankmon. Luckily when the two attacked they managed to get out of the way and their attacks hit each other.  
Tai wanted to get back to Kari as quickly as possible, but didn’t want to lead any enemy digimon there. Izzy tried to use his computer to plot a course around them, but found they were tracking his signal. Agumon digivolved into Greymon and then Metal-Greymon to help them escape and when they finally got away Izzy asked why Tai was so worried. Tai explained about what happened when Kari was little and almost died.  
“What really killed me was what she said when she finally got home from the hospital. She apologized for not being able to kick the soccer ball right, said that I probably wouldn’t want to play with her anymore. That’s Kari she never thinks about herself no matter how she’s feeling she always worried about the other kid. I’m her father I should be taking care of her and I can’t even do that right.”  
He began to sob and Izzy tried to comfort him then he got an idea about how they could use the enemy’s surveillance against them. He made it seem like they were accessing the line from several different places at once and it worked. Unfortunately as they went outside they saw one of the digimon attacking a nearby building. It seemed they decided searching was too much trouble and they were just destroying everything.  
They needed to hurry and get back to the others as quickly as possible and get away before the whole city was destroyed. As they arrived though they saw a shot hit the building the others were in. Fortunately for Tai’s heart he noticed the others had gotten out soon after. Unfortunately it was at that moment that Machine-dramon discovered them. They ducked into a building, but he shot at them and they began falling into an abyss.  
Ta was going a bit crazy as he tried to find Kari he knew they should rest at least a little, but was too worried to consider it. As he was yelling at Izzy for wanting a break he heard footsteps and pulled Izzy into an opening in the gate to hide. To their relief it was Andromon. He was looking for allies to stand up to Machine-dramon. They asked Andromon if he had seen the others and he said they were on their way.  
Sadly Machine-dramon found them first. Andromon said he hold him off while they escaped. As they were running they found the others. Kari was aglow with light like Tai always knew she one day would be. Tai ran and gathered her up in his arms so happy that she was feeling alright. It seemed her fever had broken. Birdramon, Angemon and Angewomon went to rescue Andromon and fight Machine-dramon.  
The Numemon all rose to cover Machine-dramon and protect Kari, but he destroyed them. Kari’s light shown again and Agumon felt his strength returning. He warp digivolved into War-Greymon. He quickly sliced through Machine-dramon before reverting back to Koromon. As the area they were in fell apart they flew away with the help of Angemon, Angewomon and Birdramon. Andromon went off to continue looking for allies to finish the fight.  
Kari asked if they could make a memorial for the Numemon when they landed and everyone agreed to help. They made a nice grave and promised that they’d defeat Piedmon and free primary village. They continued to search with Andromon and believed they spotted where he was. Izzy plugged his computer into Andromon and with the use of geothermal imagery they were able to get a rough image of the remains of Spiral Island.  
Soon Andromon detected someone approaching and they saw Lady-Devimon. All of them digivolved except Agumon, Tai hated letting the others fight alone, but he had to conserve their energy for Piedmon. He also knew that even if he digivolved himself he would need help from the others to defeat Piedmon so while Angewomon and Kabuterimon fought Lady-Devimon Tai sent Sora and TK to get the others as quickly as possible.  
It took a while and some help from Mega-Kabuterimon, but Angewomon beat Lady-Devimon. The others celebrated a little, but Tai’s eyes were locked firmly in the distance. It was Piedmon. He was walking leisurely towards them as if he had nothing to fear. Tai let Agumon digivolve to War-Greymon, but didn’t digivolve himself.  
He was gathering energy to though. He knew he would be fighting it was only a matter of when and he hoped that if nothing else Piedmon’s surprise at seeing him would give them an advantage. If he knew anything about Mimi he was sure she had gathered a lot of allies in her time away. He only hoped they would get here in time.  
The fight with War-Greymon and Piedmon wasn’t going well. War-Greymon was showing some signs of exhaustion while Piedmon didn’t have a mark on him. The others wanted to join the fight, but Tai told them to wait until the others arrived. He could feel War-Greymon’s pain and exhaustion and hoped the others arrived soon.  
Then Tai was hit with one of Piedmon’s attacks. Izzy started to head over to him, but Tai told him to stay near Kari so she would be protected. Then War-Greymon got hit so hard his armor broke and Tai felt some of his energy pass to War-Greymon trying to heal him. He was so tired he couldn’t even get up.  
Then he heard a voice. It was Matt! He ran over and pulled Tai into his arms. Tai smiled up at him.  
“I never doubted you for a second Matt.”  
“I know, thank you Tai, for believing me. I’m just sorry I was so late. Tai you have to know how much our friendship has always meant to me and I swear nothing will ever come between us again.”  
With that Matt’s crest began to glow with true power. Garurumon passed some of the energy to War-Greymon and it restored his armor. Then he reverted back to Gabumon so he could warp digivolve to Metal-Garurumon. They combined their attacks and were able to take out Piedmon’s trump sword. When they started pressing their advantage Tai gave the go ahead for everyone else to digivolve.  
Unfortunately before anyone could digivolve Piedmon covered Matt, Tai, and their digimon in a cloth that turned them into key chains. Tai could still sense the area around him, but couldn’t move. He started to batter his energy against the attack. If he could only hit it hard enough he might revert back. He noted when Joe, Izzy and Tentomon joined him and was grateful that at least Piedmon hadn’t killed any of them yet.  
He knew it was just because he wanted to gloat over his victory, but was glad for the stay of execution so to speak. Soon Angewomon and Garudamon were there and Tai heard Sora telling TK that he had to protect Kari and that if they lost it was over so he had to be brave. Before he and Sora got caught Gomamon managed to swipe Matt away from Piedmon and get him to TK.  
When Piedmon caught up with Kari and TK Patamon digivolved into Angemon to keep Piedmon from getting to them unfortunately he was hit away and Piedmon cut the rope they were using. Then as he was falling he felt Matt’s belief in him and it gave him hope that he could to this and his crest began to glow a brilliant gold. For the first time Angemon digivolved into his ultimate form Magna-Angemon who managed to catch both Kari and TK with ease. He then cut all the key chains away from Piedmon and restored them with his antidote abilities.  
Piedmon realizing he might be losing summoned his army of Vilemon. Tai flashed back briefly to the destruction of his kingdom. The digimon weren’t very powerful, but there were a lot of them. Tai shook off the memory. It wouldn’t happen again and that was the moment when Mimi showed up with her own army of all the digimon they had befriended. He even noticed a few they hadn’t.  
Tai smiled, Mimi certainly had a gift. The tide had certainly turned quickly it didn’t take long to defeat the Vilemon and Magna-Angemon’s Gate of Destiny combined with War-Greymon’s Terra Force and Metal-Garurumon’s Giga Missile took care of Piedmon. The final dark Master was defeated and the last piece of Spiral Mountain was crumbling.  
Before they could celebrate they got a message from Gennai that there was a force behind the Dark Masters whose very existence warped the digital world. Tai had a flash of insight. This might be the reason for the acceleration of time in the digital world. Before he could think about it more they were falling and eventually stuck floating in an abyss.  
Gennai told them he found an inscription in some ancient ruins. It told of a being who appeared behind a wall of fire whose very existence warped time and space. It threatened to destroy the entire digital world. This was how the original digi-destined came to be  
‘Actual humans’ Tai thought. He was now sure this being was why he was away from the digital world far longer than he ever intended. Then Gennai was cut off and they heard a voice coming from all directions. Soon there was a figure in front of them. It was a digimon Tai had never seen before and it called itself Apocalymon. It was a digimon created from the data of failed digital evolutions.  
It was a being that knew only grief and pain and was incapable of feeling joy or compassion. It only knew how to lash out at the world around it. Tai felt sorry from him, but that wouldn’t stop him from fighting. He had something precious to protect and such an existence would just be torture anyway.  
He started pulling out the energy he had been storing in the crest. He only hoped it was enough. As he was pulling the energy out Apocalymon forced their digimon back to their resting states and before they could digivolve again he took their crests and destroyed them. Tai was grateful that he managed to pull the extra energy out of his in time.  
If he hadn’t it would have exploded and that would have hurt them as much as Apocalymon. The others were despairing over the loss of their crests when Tai smiled at them.  
“Don’t worry guys remember what the researchers told us? The crests came from us in the first place. The power was always there and now I’m going to show you just what I can do.”  
He began to glow and the crest of courage showed on his chest. As he looked over he saw the others regaining their hope at his words. It was time. Like that time at Piximon’s training grounds he removed all of his shackles.  
“Taichi digivolve to Ryukomon”  
He could feel their eyes on him as his body changes and his armor formed, but more than that he could see the shocked look on Apocalymon’s face.  
“Impossible.”  
“Well to sum up a long and complicated story. Not dead.”  
The other digimon joined in encouraging the others. Reminding them of all the dangers and battle they had faced. Showing them how far they had come. Even Tai could feel he was stronger and wiser than he had been as King Taichi. They were ready to fight together even without the crests and with this realization the crests began to glow above their hearts just like Tai’s. Matt realized that the power of friendship didn’t come from his heart it came from the friendship they all felt for him. The others agreed with this for their crests and their digimon digivolved again.  
They were ready to fight. Everyone, but Tai was perched on their digimon. Tai was flying alongside War-Greymon and they were now about the same size. The others were keeping the attacks away from Matt, Ryukomon, War-Greymon, and Metal-Garurumon as they got in close to attack. When they finally got close enough they let their attacks go.  
“Metal Wolf Claw”  
“Terra Force”  
“Blazing Spiral”  
They had defeated all his claws. The he used his final attack which had the power to destroy both worlds.  
“Total Annihilation”  
There was a moment of panic as that was one of the most power attacks in the digital world, but Tai knew they could to it. They were chosen for a reason and they were stronger than Apocalymon. Their digivices began to glow with power. They formed a shield which contained the explosion. They had won. All of the digimon in the real world returned to the digital world and the rift closed. Gennai appeared and was shocked to see Ryukomon and even more shocked when he returned to being Tai.  
The digital world was being reborn along with all the digimon that had died. Primary village returned to normal and it began to rain digi-eggs. One by one they were going to hatch them all. It would take a long time, but it was worth it. They all prepared to take a picture together to commemorate the occasion. After visiting Primary Village they went to the lake where Gabumon first digivolved into Garurumon.  
As they sat there they thought about the real world, though they knew they were really digimon they still felt the human attachments.  
“Tai I kind of want to stay here, but I also want to return to earth too.” Mimi  
“Not a problem. Since I’ve finished recovering with the help of Izzy’s laptop I can create a portal to and from the digital world. Besides we need to return to the human world anyway.”  
“Why?” Sora  
“Because there are four more people who I sent to the human world, and I need to find them. It’s going to be hard they reverted back to being toddlers so they might not have the same names. In any case I don’t see why we can’t stay the rest of summer. With Apocalymon destroyed Earth should be back in sync with the digital world.”  
“Well we should head home first to reassure our families that we made it through this alright. We can come back tomorrow.” Izzy  
“Yup and every day for the rest of summer”  
“I’d like that.” Matt  
“I think we all would.” Joe  
Tai smile as they all were in agreement and then he noticed the look Matt was giving him. As soon as he locked eyes with Tai Matt jerked his head a little and Tai nodded. He felt warmth spread through him at the silent communication. It had been far too long since he had last been able to do that with Matt. Soon he went down the path Matt went earlier after he requested Tai follow him. When he got a decent enough distance away he started looking for Matt. He didn’t need to look for long before he felt a pair of soft lips against his own. It was a soft and chaste kiss and Matt pulled away fairly quickly.  
“I remember now.”  
“Everything?”  
“Yes. It started coming back shortly after I saw you with your fire blade and then after you digivolved into Ryukomon the rest came back. I even remember this small boy walking up to me one day. I didn’t have a clue who you were and you asked me if I would play the harmonica for you.”  
“That’s how we met and if I recall correctly you flushed and refused.”  
“I hated playing in front of people, but you kept asking.”  
“And eventually you played for me so I would stop following you around.”  
“Yeah and it didn’t work.”  
“It probably never will.”  
“I can’t believe you never told me. You were in love with me that whole time?”  
“Yup. Although it took me a while to put a name to what I was feeling I knew right away that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. Although you needed a lot more convincing especially once you learned who I was.”  
“No kidding. I knew you for almost a year before it came out. I was so mad at you for not telling me that you were a prince.”  
“But you understood.”  
“Not at first, but I got there.”  
“Yup and it only took me 15 more years to convince you to marry me.”  
“Not that much time considering we were only six when we first met. That’s young for humans more so for digimon.”  
Tai looked at Matt with a soft smile he hadn’t felt this calm and happy in years.  
“I will always love you Matt.”  
“I love you too Tai.”  
They stayed like that for a few more minutes before they returned to the others. They had all the time in the world to be together. For now though it was time to head back to earth. They all said their goodbyes to their digimon and promises to see them tomorrow then Tai created a portal back to the place where their families were waiting.  
As everyone began to leave, Tai and Matt shared a look before nodding with a shared smirk. For now they were parting, but they had a whole new adventure waiting for them just around the corner.


End file.
